ED attaches ₹1,024 crore assets in Goa illegal iron ore mining case
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The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Sunday said it has attached assets worth more than ₹1,023 crore, including properties located in Singapore, in an alleged illegal iron ore mining case in Goa.
A provisional order was issued on June 19 under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) in a matter pertaining to large-scale illegal iron ore mining by the Salgaocar Group and its associates (AVS Group), the central agency said in a statement.
The attached assets include 99 immovable properties located in India (₹459.10 crore), 31 immovable properties in Singapore (₹471.32 crore), and equity shares in Indian companies (₹93.42 crore) held in the names of the Estate of Late Anil Salgaocar (through its administrator, Lakshmi Anil Salgaocar), Salgaocar Mining Industries, Shantilal Khushaldas & Brothers, S. Kantilal & Co., Salitho Ores, Vertex Newton Projects, and Subarnarekha Port, according to the ED.
The total value of the attached assets is ₹1,023.85 crore.
The money laundering investigation stems from an FIR filed by the Goa Police CID. The ED said the Supreme Court, through its judgments in 2014 and 2018, held that all mining undertaken in Goa after November 22, 2007 (until the issuance of fresh mining leases), was illegal.
The agency alleged that its probe found that the AVS Group operated 10 mining leases during 2007-12 and generated proceeds of crime worth ₹2,492.95 crore from the illegal extraction, sale, and export of iron ore.
The "illegally" mined ore was exported at "grossly undervalued" prices to shell entities (special purpose vehicles) incorporated in the British Virgin Islands, which acted as mere paper intermediaries and resold the ore to China, generating additional offshore trade profits of ₹2,744.89 crore.
The total proceeds of crime have been calculated at ₹5,237.84 crore, according to the agency.
"These funds were layered through BVI- and Singapore-based SPVs, utilised to acquire substantial movable and immovable assets abroad, and partly routed back into India in the guise of share capital," the ED alleged.