The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has issued a provisional attachment order for immovable properties worth ₹39 crore belonging to M/s Future Metals Pvt. Ltd., other companies in the group, and the promoters Sudheer Sriram and Naveen Sriram.
Sudheer Sriram fled the country in 2009 after a scam of ₹1,208 crore that he was allegedly involved in surfaced. He was nabbed by the CBI at the Kempegowda International Airport in Bengaluru in February this year.
A case similar to the Nirav Modi one, the scam involved 134 Letters of Credit (LoC) facilitated by Spices Trading Corporation Ltd. (STCL) to M/s Future Metals Pvt. Ltd. that went overdue. The firm had entered into business with STCL to import high-value non-ferrous scrap, mainly copper and nickel, a deviation from the core business of STCL – spices.
The ED had, in 2009, unearthed the scam where the firm had duped STCL of up to ₹1,208 crore. The ED had raided the firm's offices on M.G. Road in Bengaluru in 2009 while the CBI registered FIRs. But by then, Sudheer Sriram had fled the country and was reportedly based in the UAE.
Though he was arrested in Spain in 2015, Indian agencies failed to get him extradited. In December 2017, Sudheer Sriram sought extension of his passport before the Karnataka High Court, which was turned down. He was sent to Bengaluru on emergency travel papers issued by the Indian embassy in the UAE in February 2018, only to be arrested on his arrival. Based on the chargesheets filed by the CBI, ED had taken up an investigation of the case.
“During the probe, an offence of money laundering has been made out against Naveen Sriram, Sudheer Sriram and others. It has been revealed that they have siphoned off ₹1,208 crore through criminal conspiracy. They have laundered the said illegally-earned tainted money in the form of investment in immovable properties in their names and in the names of their family members and group companies to project the said proceeds of crime as untainted money. The attached immovable properties are in the form of land in various places in Punjab and Tamil Nadu,” a statement from ED said.
