Jet Airways' assets worth ₹538 cr seized by ED

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has provisionally attached properties worth ₹538.05 crore under the provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) 2002 in the money laundering investigation against Jet Airways (India) Limited.

The attached properties include 17 residential flats, bungalows and commercial premises in the name of various companies and persons including Jetair Private Limited, Jet Enterprises Private Limited, founder chairman of Jet Airways Naresh Goyal, his wife Anita Goyal and son Nivaan Goyal situated in London, Dubai and various states of India.

The Enforcement Directorate initiated an investigation on the basis of an FIR registered by CBI on the basis of a written complaint submitted by Canara Bank, Mumbai, alleging offences of cheating, criminal conspiracy, criminal breach of trust and criminal misconduct committed by Jet Airways and its promoter and directors which resulted in a massive NPA (non-performing assets) of ₹538.62 crore.

The investigation revealed that Jet Airways siphoned off the loans from a consortium of banks led by State Bank of India (SBI) and Punjab National Bank (PNB). "Naresh Goyal implemented a massive financial fraud in which the funds of JIL were systematically diverted in the garb of irrational and inflated General Sales Agent (GSA) commissions, large unexplained payouts to various professionals and consultants, by granting of loans to JetLite Limited (100% subsidiary to acquire Air Sahara), and subsequently writing off the loans by making provisions in the balance sheets," the ED alleges.

The probe established that GSA commissions were wrongfully paid to Jet Air Private Limited (GSA of JIL for India), Jet Airways LLC Dubai (Global GSA of JIL) and JIL wrongfully paid for the operational expenses of these GSAs. "All these GSAs were beneficially owned by Naresh Goyal. Hence, the management of JIL toed the line of Naresh Goyal, and kept on paying large sums of money on regular basis despite the fact that these entities were not performing any substantial service after 2009. The funds received were again used by Naresh Goyal & his family for their personal expenses and investments," it says.

The investigating agency had conducted searches and surveys at the premises linked to Naresh Goyal, Chartered Accountants of JIL and others. It arrested Naresh Goyal on September 1, 2023 and he is presently in judicial custody. The agency filed a prosecution complaint before the Special Court (PMLA) on October 31.

Jet Airways shut operations in 2019 after it failed to pay vendors due to bankruptcy. The Jalan-Kalrock consortium took over the airline in October 2020 after placing a successful bid during the corporate insolvency resolution process. In May last year, the DGCA (Directorate General of Civil Aviation) granted an air operator's certificate (AOC) to Jet Airways to resume flight operations. However, despite getting a green signal from DGCA, the revival plan of Jet Airways has hit several roadblocks owing to non-payment of dues to the lenders.