The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has unearthed multiple complex webs involving 339 shell companies, allegedly used to divert funds to the tune of ₹2,900 crore, as part of its probe into such cases over the last three years.
CBI sources said the shell companies were being used by the suspects to divert loan funds meant for specified purposes, creating fake invoices, and ‘round-tripping’ of funds to evade taxes and generate black money.
Round-tripping is sending money to tax havens abroad in the guise of payments for fake imports through shell companies and bringing back that money, showing it as “foreign investment.“
The findings of the CBI are just a tip of the iceberg as these are only those cases where the agency has been able to find ‘legally tenable’ evidence of the money trail, cheating and diversion of funds to cheat the banks, said the sources not willing to be named.
The murky activities have been exposed during the CBI probe into various loan fraud cases involving 28 public sector banks and a private bank, the sources said.
The agency is also probing about 200 bank fraud cases involving funds of at least ₹30,000 crore, they said.
The CBI is prosecuting these companies for corruption and scheduled offences associated with it. In addition, it will also refer these cases to other investigating agencies for action under various laws like the Companies Act, Prevention of Money Laundering Act, Benami Transactions (Prohibition) Act, Income Tax Act etc, the sources said.
The agency has not only “exposed” these shell companies but also gathered enough material which would “plug” the possibility of them being used for any further operation, they said.
The sources said it was likely that the shell companies had been used to abet financial crimes by other offenders too. This will be probed by other agencies.
‘A tough task’
The companies are spread across the country as also the ‘tax-haven’ countries facilitating transfer of black money, which makes the investigation even more difficult, they said.
Some important cases which have been probed by the CBI include the one against Century Communication Group, which used to run Mahua Channel.
According to the figures mentioned in the agency’s charge sheets and FIRs, the group allegedly committed fraud to the tune of ₹3,000 crore. It used over 98 shell companies to allegedly divert bank loans for setting up digital studios in Noida, Mumbai, Kolkata and other locations, the CBI had said.
