ED seizes luxury cars like Ferrari, Lamborghini from Gurugram realtors M3M, IREO

New Delhi: The ED on Monday said it has seized luxury cars including Ferrari, Lamborghini and Bentley worth Rs 60 crore and jewelery worth Rs 5.75 crore during raids on real estate companies IREO and M3M in a money laundering probe. The federal agency said in a statement that searches were conducted at seven of his locations in Delhi and Gurugram on June 1.

The ED alleged that the owner, controller and promoter of M3M Group, Basant Bansal, Roop Kumar Bansal, Pankaj Bansal and other key persons, deliberately evaded investigation during the raids. The agency has been probing the IREO group for the past few years for allegedly diverting, siphoning off and embezzling investors’ and clients’ funds, and later found that “hundreds of crores of rupees were laundered through M3M in large amounts”. The funds were embezzled. The group too”.

“In one of the transactions, M3M group received around Rs 400 crore from IREO group through multiple shell companies in multiple layers. The transactions were shown in the books of IREO as payment for development rights.” The ED alleged that the market value of the land was around Rs 4 crore.

The agency said it has seized 17 high-end luxury vehicles such as Ferrari, Lamborghini, Land Rover, Rolls Royce, Bentley, Mercedes and Maybach with an acquisition value of around Rs 60 crore. It also seized jewelery and bullion worth Rs 5.75 crore, Rs 15 lakh in cash and various “incriminating documents” and ledgers during the raids.

The agency alleges that M3M Group initially sold the development rights of the said land to five shell (suspicious) companies for Rs 10 crore. “It was claimed that the five companies are unconnected. Investigation reveals that these shell companies were operated by M3M Group. Thereafter the five shell companies immediately sold the development rights of the same land to IREO Group for about Rs 400 crores. Given.”

The agency said that after receiving an amount of Rs 400 crore from the IREO group, the shell companies immediately transferred the said amount to the M3M group using multiple layers. “All the shell companies were owned and operated by the M3M group under the direction of its promoters Basant Bansal and Roop Kumar Bansal and their family members. IREO and M3M thus defrauded investors/customers and the company to the tune of approximately Rs 400 crores The proceeds of crime remained with the M3M group which was used by M3M to pay off other investments/liabilities.

The ED alleged that the IREO group made no effort to develop the land and started “writing off” the investment every year.