The Enforcement Directorate (ED) arrested four Directors of Tamil Nadu’s Disc Assets Group in a money laundering case linked to cheating the public of a whopping Rs 1,100 crore through a Ponzi scheme.
The directors of the company who have been arrested are N Umashankar alias NM Umasangarr, N Arun Kumar alias N Arun, V Janarthanan and A Saravana Kumar.
Investigation have revealed that Disc Assets Lead India Limited and Ors collected money through its 'Collective Investment Scheme' amounting to over Rs 1,100 crore from the gullible public promising land or money with a very high interest in return.
The money collected through the Ponzi scheme was siphoned out in the guise of investment in subsidiaries, as payment of royalty to the directors or family members of directors of the company, as dividends and as a diversion to unrelated entities.
The Enforcement Directorate has also attached 1,081 properties worth Rs 207 crore of the group.
The accused persons had filed a plea in the Supreme Court against the order of Madras High Court dismissing their bail petition. The plea was dismissed by the Apex Court on February 25.
Accordingly, ED arrested the four persons on March 5, based on the non-bailable warrants issued by the principal special judge for CBI Cases, Chennai. The judge remanded the accused persons to Judicial Custody.
ED had initiated an investigation under PMLA, 2002 based on the FIR registered by the economic offences wing of the Tamil Nadu Police.
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