The Enforcement Directorate on July 9, 2020, provisionally attached assets and properties valued at over Rs 2,800 crore in India and abroad belonging to YES Bank Co-Founder Rana Kapoor and the Wadhawans, promoters of Dewan Housing Finance (DHFL), in connection with the YES Bank money laundering case.
The central probe agency said that it has issued a provisional order, under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), for attachment of properties worth Rs 2,203 crore but the "present market value of these assets is more than Rs 2,800 crore".
"The assets include immovable properties in India and abroad, bank accounts, investments, luxury vehicles, among others," it said.
"These assets belong to Rana Kapoor, Kapil Wadhawan and Dheeraj Wadhawan, and the entities controlled by them," the ED added.
The properties include Kapoor’s plush bungalow in Delhi on 40 Amrita Shergill Marg (worth Rs 685 crore), an independent residential building ‘Khursidabad’ at Cumbala Hill, three duplex flats at Nepean Sea Road, one at the National Centre for the Performing Arts at Nariman Point, along with eight flats at Indiabulls Blu in Worli. “The attached assets relating to Kapoor and related entities are pegged at Rs 1,400 crore (market value),” said the ED.
Another attachment order in the case includes a commercial property in Australia belonging to DHFL promoters Kapil Wadhawan and Dheeraj Wadhawan and one flat in New York and two flats in London, worth Rs 1,411.9 crore.
Wadhawans’ India assets have also been attached. These include 12 flats in Khar (West), two land parcels in Pune and Mulshi, five luxury vehicles, and 344 bank accounts.
This is the first order in the case where foreign assets have been attached by the agency, said an ED official.
Other than properties in India, the federal agency is learned to have also identified that Kapoor’s company Doit Creations Jersey, with an investment of Rs 83 crore, has three properties in London, including a guesthouse on 77 South Audley Street in London worth £11.5 million, and another residential property.
Sources say more attachments will be made in the coming weeks.
The directorate had earlier attached bank deposits to the tune of Rs 115 crore of various companies of Kapoor and seized jewelry worth Rs 22.87 crore. The agency had also seized luxury cars worth Rs 12.58 crore belonging to the Wadhawans’ family.
The ED alleged that these assets had been created out of proceeds the Kapoors had received from corporates as ‘kickbacks’ in exchange for sanctioning loans during his tenure at YES Bank.
The ED has listed several properties managed and owned by Kapoor’s family and companies, including bungalows, villas, farmhouses, apartments not just in Delhi and Mumbai, but also in London, the US, the UK and other places worth several thousand crores.
Other expensive properties belonging to Kapoor are located in Lutyens’ Delhi, including on 18 Kautilya Marg and 20 Sardar Patel Marg. He also has 7.5 acres of beachfront land in Alibaug in Maharashtra.
The ED had filed a prosecution complaint in May in the Kapoor case alleging laundering to the tune of Rs 5,050 crore.
Rana Kapoor and the Wadhawans were arrested by the agency in this case early this year and they are in judicial custody at present.
An alleged dubious link between Yes Bank and DHFL is under the ED's probe scanner.
"During April-June 2018, Yes Bank Limited had invested Rs 3,700 crore in short term debentures of DHFL, a company belonging to the Wadhawans, for which kickback of Rs 600 crore was paid to Rana Kapoor and his family members in the garb of loan," the ED alleged.
"Besides, Yes Bank had also sanctioned a loan of Rs 750 crore to RKW Developers group company beneficially owned by the Wadhawans and their family members for their Bandra Reclamation Project in Mumbai but the whole amount was siphoned off by the brothers through their shell companies and was never used for the declared purpose," the probe agency has alleged.
The Amrita Shergill Marg property attachment stems from another money laundering FIR lodged by the ED, based on a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) complaint, against Rana Kapoor and Avantha Group promoter Gautam Thapar.
"The (CBI) FIR alleges that Rana Kapoor, then MD and CEO of Yes Bank Ltd, obtained illegal gratification in the form of a property in a prime location in Delhi at much less than the realizable market value belonging to Avantha Realty Ltd for sanction of a loan to ARL and extending concessions, relaxations, and waivers in the already existing credit facilities provided to Avantha Group companies and for advancing new and additional loans to them by Yes Bank Ltd," the ED said.
Corporate bigwigs like Anil Ambani and Essel Group chairman Subhash Chandra have been questioned by the agency in the past.
The ED also filed a charge sheet in this case in May and a supplementary complaint is soon expected to be filed before a special PMLA court in Mumbai.
