The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has provisionally attached 30 overseas assets, valued at ₹5,000 crore (approximately $600 million USD), located in the United States, the United Arab Emirates, and Thailand. These attachments are part of an ongoing money laundering investigation connected to the "Pan Card Club" fraud, allegedly perpetrated by Mumbai-based Panoramic Universal Ltd (PUL) and the late Sudhir Moravekar.
The ED initiated the investigation based on a First Information Report (FIR) filed by the Economic Offences Wing (EOW) under various sections of the Indian Penal Code, 1860, and the Maharashtra Protection of Interest of Depositors (In Financial Establishments) Act, 1999. Investigations revealed that Pan Card Limited (PCL) unauthorizedly collected investments from approximately 5.1 million investors across India between 1997 and 2017, failing to return over ₹5,000 crore to many of them. The EOW has already filed a chargesheet against PCL, PUL, 44 other related companies, six directors of PCL, and five marketing representatives of PCL.
The attached overseas properties include 22 assets in Thailand, six in the United Arab Emirates, and two in the United States. These assets were acquired with payments equivalent to ₹54.32 crore made between 2002 and 2015.
ED investigation revealed that Proceeds of Crime (POC) amounting to around Rs 99 crore were diverted from PCL to PUL apart from diversion of POC to the personal accounts of family members of deceased accused Sudhir Moravekar. It was also revealed that during 2002, a hotel in New Zealand was bought through Overseas Direct Investments (ODI) by PUL. Later the asset was sold off and the Wholly Owned Subsidiary in New Zealand was closed without duly reporting to RBI/Bank. ODI investments were also made in USA, UAE, Thailand, Singapore and remittances equivalent to Rs 100 rore (approx.) were sent during the period from 2002 to 2014. Assets were acquired in the name of these overseas subsidiary entities.
The ED also discovered that both sons of late Sudhir Moravekar were allegedly planning to sell off some of these assets in the USA and UAE.