PNB fraud: ED eyes Nirav Modi's Rs.4,000 crore worth of foreign assets

Enforcement Directorate (ED) has zeroed in on foreign assets worth about 4,000 crore rupees of absconding diamond jeweller Nirav Modi for quick attachment under the anti-money laundering law in connection with the 2 billion dollar PNB fraud case. 

Officials said, the agency has got issued a number of judicial requests (Letters Rogatories), and with a few being in the pipeline, from a local court in Mumbai to be sent to countries like the US, UK, Switzerland, Hong Kong and Singapore for attachment of immovable properties likes houses and villas and bank accounts of Nirav Modi and his family.

The ED had deployed a special team of officers to find out these assets located in the foreign shores and after getting official inputs, it has now begun



the action to attach them under the criminal provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) soon, with help from foreign authorities.

The estimated value of these about two dozen assets is approximately 4,000 crore rupees. The central probe agency, in the past, has attached assets in Australia and the United States of America (USA) as part of its PMLA probe in other cases related to frauds.

The identified foreign assets are in the name of Nirav Modi, his family members and in some cases in the name of firms that the agency has called bogus or dummy. It is understood that some showrooms of the diamond jeweller in these countries are under the ED radar which will soon face attachment action.