ED arrests M3M director Roop Kumar Bansal over money laundering charges

New Delhi [India], June 9 (ANI): The Directorate of Enforcement (ED) arrested Roop Kumar Bansal, the promoter and director of M3M Group, on Thursday under the provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, 2002 in connection with the investigations being done on IREO Group and M3M Group for diverting/siphoning off/misappropriating funds of investors/ customers, an official statement said.

ED initiated an investigation on the basis of multiple FIRs registered against IREO Group. The investigation conducted by ED revealed that huge amounts of money, running to hundreds of crores, were siphoned off through the M3M group also, the statement said.

Further, according to the statement, the investigations done by ED showed that in one of the transactions, M3M group received about Rs 400 Crore from IREO Group through several shell companies in multiple layers.

The transaction were shown in the books of IREO as payments towards development rights. The land was owned by M3M group and its market value was about Rs 4 Crore. M3M Group initially sold the development rights of the said land to 5 shell companies for a payment of Rs 10 Crore.

It was claimed that the 5 companies are unrelated companies. Investigations showed that the 5 shell companies were operated by M3M Group. The 5 shell companies, thereafter, immediately sold the development rights of the same land to IREO Group for about Rs 400 Crore, the statement added.

After receiving the amount of Rs 400 crore from IREO Group, the 5 shell companies transferred the said amounts immediately to M3M Group through multiple shell companies and layers. All the shell companies were owned and operated by M3M Group under the directions of its promoters Basant Bansal and Roop Kumar Bansal and his family members, the statement further said.

IREO and M3M siphoned off about Rs 400 crore money belonging to investors/ customers and the proceeds of crime remained with M3M Group which was used by M3M for other investments/ paying off liabilities. On the other hand, IREO Group did not make any efforts to develop the land and started to write off the investments every year. Roop Kumar Bansal played a key role in the completion of the said transactions.

The custody of Roop Kumar Bansal had become necessary for investigations. He has been avoiding investigation and was not responding to summons issued by ED on multiple occasions, the statement said.

After the arrest, Roop Kumar Bansal was produced before the Designated Special PMLA Court, Panchkula. The court granted the custody of Roop Kumar Bansal for 7 days to ED.

Further investigations are in progress.