Bank Loan Fraud Case: Assets Of Dino Morea Seized By Enforcement Directorate

On Friday (July 2, 2021), the Enforcement Directorate (ED) attached properties of actors Dino Morea and Sanjay Khan and DJ Aqueel, and late Congress leader Ahmed Patel's son-in-law in a money laundering case involving Gujarat-based pharmaceutical company Sterling Biotech group.

As per a report in ETimes, the ED issued a provisional order under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) to attach the assets of the four people which are worth Rs 8.79 crore.

Out of this, the value of attachment of assets for Khan is Rs 3 crore, Rs 1.4 crore for Dino Morea, Rs 1.98 crore for DJ Aqeel and Rs 2.41 crore for Patel's son-in-law Irfan Ahmed Siddiqui, ED said in a statement.

A NDTV report stated that according to ED, a money-laundering probe in the case led to the discovery of transactions between the Sandesaras and Irfan Siddiqui, Dino Morea and DJ Aqeel.

The ED said that Nitin Sandesara and Chetan Sandesara, absconding promoters of the Sterling Biotech group, have "diverted" proceeds of crime to the four people, stated a report in ETimes. The agency further said that the promoter brothers Nitin Sandesara, Chetan Sandesara, Chetan's wife DiSandesara and Hitesh Patel have been declared fugitive economic offenders by a special court.

An official from the probing agency was quoted as saying, "Out of Rs 16,000 crore considered as proceeds of crime in the Sandesaras case, assets worth Rs 14,521 crore have been attached so far."

If reports are to be believed, the money laundering case allegedly involves a sum of Rs. 14,500 crore in bank-loan frauds. Investigators believe that the amount is even greater than the fraud committed by businessman Nirav Modi.