Though Satyam Computer Services founder Ramalinga Raju?s is seeking a life out of the jail, he will have pretty much less to bank upon even if he gets a bail. The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has attached over a third of the 786 properties owned by Raju and 131 others, including his brothers and their wives, after it established that those were obtained through the ill-gotten gains from India?s largest corporate fraud.
The 280-odd properties attached by the ED through a provisional order are worth Rs 200 crore on paper, but their current market value is estimated to be about Rs 1,200 crore. The 150-page provisional order to attach the properties has been filed, along with an 11,000-page complaint that matches the money trail with the title records of all the properties.
A senior government official told FE that ED?s investigations into the rest of the properties continue and more properties would be attached over the next few months.
Raju?s bail plea came up before the IVth additional metropolitan sessions judge T Eashwer Rao on Thursday in Hyderabad, but the judge reserved order on the petition for Friday.
According to the ED?s current findings, Raju along with other accused floated 327 companies to invest his white-collar crime?s proceeds in real estate and other allied businesses. Around Rs 2,000 crore of funds were mobilised by these companies from various non-banking companies and by pledging Satyam shares by Raju and other family members.
The ED found that the companies that were used to buy these properties had virtually no independent source of funding. The funds laundered by Raju and his associates were routed to these firms for purchasing real estate. During its investigations, the ED had recorded statements of Raju in the jail.
The New Delhi-based adjudicating authority, set up under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), has issued notices to the 132 accused after the ED sought confirmation of its attachment order. Raju and his co-conspirators have been granted time till November 5 to respond with justifications for the transactions under the scanner.
If the adjudicating authority is not satisfied with their explanations about these property transactions, the ED can seize these assets and may even order their arrests.
The 786 properties identified by the ED were acquired between 2005 and 2008, and are spread across Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra, Karnataka and Uttar Pradesh.
The ED is the central agency dealing with cases registered under Foreign Exchange Management Act 1999 and PMLA. It had registered the case against Raju and his family under the PMLA, which defines money laundering offences as those with money derived from any activity connected with the proceeds of crime and provides for freezing and seizing the proceeds of crime.