The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has attached moveable and immoveable properties worth ₹4234.84 crore belonging to Vijay Mallya and companies controlled by him.
The agency stated that by concealing the assets instead of paying loan amount, and diverting the loan proceeds out of India, Dr. Mallya and United Breweries Hoardings Ltd. (UBHL) have benefitted and “are involved in money laundering”.
The fresh complaint filed by the ED, and seen by
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Kingfisher Airlines Ltd. (KAL) offered a collateral for obtaining loans from various banks. The assignment of KAL brand was valued at ₹3,406 cr. with Mr. Mallya as the personal guarantor. There was a conspiracy amongst Mr. Mallya and KAL officials to protect and get the brand value accepted as a collateral security despite the same being a hypothetical asset and suffering from deficiencies, the ED said.
KAL had offered as a security, negative lien on fleet of hire purchase/finance lease aircraft against the loans availed from the banks despite being well aware that the said security was only a symbolic security in nature and was grossly inadequate to cover the exposure of the banks. There were certain Companies which are the investment/group UBHL. These companies were not having any actual activity and independent source of income.
Mr. Mallya was controlling all the group companies through his office personnel. The Directors in the said companies were namesake or dummy Directors, acting on the directions of office personnel of UB Group, who were at the command of Mr. Mallya. There are movable/immovable assets in these companies in the form of shares of public listed companies and landed properties.
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KAL had also acquired a corporate jet to be used for Non-Scheduled Air Transport Services [Passenger] operations, saying it would be used by Mr. Mallya and senior employees. But the jet was mainly used as a personal carrier for Mr. Mallya, his family and friends, the ED said.
ED has also said that a related party of UB Group and KAL had entered into a sponsorship agreement with Force India Formula One Team Ltd. (FIF1TL) in 2008 for the purpose promoting/displaying the brand “Kingfisher”. KAL had made payments aggregating to GBP 30,348,452.25 @ ₹84 = ₹254,92,69,989 to FIF1TL.It said payments were routed through bank a/c of KAL held with HSBC London to conceal and avoid scrutiny.
KAL had instructed Axis Bank, to transfer the foreign currencies to their HSBC Bank accounts. Such as other operating expenses in connection with our flights. However, the amounts on their being credited to the HSBC Bank Plc., London were immediately remitted to FIF1TL. Dr. Mallya has surreptitiously transferred funds of KAL giving a false purpose of remittance. KAL and thus diverted the funds.