The Enforcement Directorate has attached assets worth ₹904 crore of D.S. Kulkarni Developers Limited (DSKDL) and others for allegedly cheating about 35,000 investors in Maharashtra between 2006 and 2017.
The land, buildings, LIC policies and bank balance of the accused companies and persons have been attached under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act. The attached immovable properties worth ₹895 crore are located in different parts of Maharashtra, Bengaluru and the United States.
The ED probe is based on the FIR and chargesheet filed by the Economic Offences Wing, alleging that Deepak S. Kulkarni, CMD of DSK Group, his wife and son , and others had ‘cheated people’ by fraudulently collecting deposits to the tune of ₹1,084 crore, on the pretext of phenomenal returns.
According to the agency, Mr. Kulkarni, his wife, son and others had floated eight partnership firms with the sole motive of collecting the funds from gullible investors from Mumbai, Pune, Kolhapur and other cities of Maharashtra. “They have fraudulently projected these partnership firms to be part and parcel of DSKDL. Although these eight partnership firms didn’t have any profit generating business, the accused persons in connivance with others, dishonestly induced the gullible public and collected funds from them in the guise of different deposit schemes,” said the agency.
The money trail established that the accused persons layered and integrated the proceeds of crime through various high-value sham transactions of capital borrowing, advances against property and director’s loan among 40 group companies or entities of DSK Group to project it as untainted money. The funds were allegedly laundered to DSKDL, DSK Global Education, DSK Southern, DSK Motors, DSK Developer Corporation (U.S.) and other group companies, as alleged. It is alleged that the funds were also diverted to the bank accounts of Mr. Kulkarni and his relatives. The laundered money was used to purchase land in India and the United States in different construction projects of DSKDL, its subsidiary, for the operative expenditure of DSK Group firms, repayment of bank loans, and also to buy land in the name of family members, the agency alleges.
