ED arrests CFO, internal auditor of Cox and Kings in money laundering case
The Enforcement Directorate today arrested Anil Khandelwal , Chief Finance Officer and Naresh Jain, internal auditor of Cox and Kings Group under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, 2002 (PMLA) in a case of diversion of loans sanctioned by Yes Bank.
The two accused were produced before the Special Judge (PMLA) and they were granted 7-day ED custody.
Cox & Kings Group is undergoing insolvency proceedings under the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (IBC) initiated by one of the financial creditors Rattan India Finance Pvt. Ltd. It owes close to Rs 6,000 crore to 37 financial creditors.
The ED investigations have found the two accused – Khandelwal and Jain – involved in diversion of loans sanctioned by banks through companies owned by them causing anomalies between bank transactions and books of accounts of Cox and King Group.
The two were also involved in forging financial statements and manipulations of balance sheets of overseas subsidiaries to get loan sanctioned.
It was also found that Anil Khandelwal and Naresh Jain purchased various immovable properties from the funds diverted from Cox and Kings Group. The two also acquired a mortgaged property amounting Rs 63 Crore through a business entity — Reward Business Solutions – owned by them without paying any money.
Further investigation revealed that Rs 150 Crore were diverted from Ezeego to Redkite Capital Private Limited, which was promoted by family members of Anil Khandelwal and Naresh Jain.
Investigations have revealed that Yes Bank sanctioned Rs 3,642 crore to CKG Group on the instructions of the CMD of Yes Bank Rana Kapoor, who allowed the sanctioning of loans by sidestepping all the norms. The investigations also found that while the bank extended loans to the group, it never made efforts to recover the same.
The list of claims of financial creditors prepared by resolution professional shows Yes Bank has the largest share of outstanding dues to the tune of Rs 2,267 crore.
ED investigations also found the group involved in showing sales of Rs 3,908 Crores to 15 non-existent/fictitious customers during 2014-2015 to 2018-2019. Majority of collection shown in ledgers from Ezeego (another group entity of CKG ) was not found in the bank statements. Also, there are 15 high-value ‘fictious’ debtors in the books of accounts. Another 147 customers also appeared to be suspicious and not existent.
The Cox & King Limited (CKL), one of the group companies of CKG, has diverted Rs 1,100 Crore to another stressed company without any approval of board which has no business relationship with the company.
