ED restores ₹1,000-cr worth assets to Andhra govt to help Ponzi victims

NEw new delhi, The Enforcement board of directors on fri said it has achieved decisiveness in restoring assets charles frederick worth a total ₹7,000 crore, duped from investors through an alleged Ponzi scheme, to the Andhra Pradesh government for further restitution to the victims of the Agri Gold "fraud". The federal probe agency initiated this process in February as it restored properties worth ₹3,339 crore. The ED has now done the same and restituted assets worth ₹611 c rore , it said. The case pertains to Agri Gold group of companies which is alleged to have collected deposits from around 19 lakh customers in the name of real estate investment with a promise of "high returns" or a residential plot, as per the agency. The Hyderabad-based zonal office of the ED had in May filed a restitution application under Section 8 of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act , 2002 before a special court for release of movable and immovable properties attached by it, during the course of investigation in this case, to the Crime Investigation Department of Andhra Pradesh. This was done so that the attached properties can be restored to the victims of the Agri Gold Ponzi schemes under the provisions of the Andhra Pradesh Protection of Depositors of Financial Establishments Act, 1999, the agency said in a statement. Restitution of assets is a provision allowed in the PMLA for helping the victims who get duped in an investment fraud and with the restoration of the properties by the ED to the state government, the authorities can now further hand over the funds to the victims under the PDFE Act, officials said. The court, as per the ED, issued an order on June 10 allowing the restitution petition filed by ED and, thus, paved the way for restoration of the attached assets to the victims. The assets include 397 parcels of agricultural land, residential and commercial plots and apartments. 380 of these assets are located in Andhra Pradesh, 13 in Telangana and four in Karnataka. The money laundering case against Agri Gold group of companies was registered in 2018 taking cognisance of several FIRs registered by the police in Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Karnataka, Odisha and Andaman and Nicobar Islands. "Agri Gold Group ran a fraudulent collective investment scheme in the guise of real estate business, for which more than 130 companies were floated." "These companies used to collect deposits as 'advances for plots' from depositors, without commensurate land being available with the company," it said. By adhering to this business module, the ED claimed, the accused "lured lakhs of gullible persons" and got deposits from them. "These funds were thereafter diverted to various industries like power/energy, dairy, entertainment, health , farm land ventures etc., without the knowledge of the depositors and the companies defaulted in returning the deposits either in cash or in kind as agreed upon." "Thousands of commission agents were engaged by the Agri Gold group to lure people and they managed to collect around ₹6,380 crore from more than 32 lakh investor accounts," it said. The agency had arrested the promoters of the company Avva Venkata Rama Rao, Avva Venkata Seshu Narayana Rao and Avva Hema Sundara Vara Prasad in December, 2020 and has filed two charge sheets against a total of 36 accused. "This restitution exercise marks a significant step in ED's efforts to restore properties to their rightful claimants and to ensure that Proceeds of Crime are returned to those affected," the agency said. This article was generated from an automated news agency feed without modifications to text.