SC tells ED to attach Indian properties of JP Morgan for transacting with Amrapali Group

The Supreme Court Monday asked the Enforcement Directorate to attach Indian properties of JP Morgan, which engaged in transaction with the now defunct Amrapali Group to allegedly siphon off home buyers money in violation of the Foreign Exchange Management Act (FEMA) and FDI norms. ED said it has prima facie found that there was violation of FEMA norms by the US-based JP Morgan and a complaint in this regard has been lodged.

As per the Share Subscription Agreement, JP Morgan had invested Rs 85 crore on October 20, 2010 to have a preferential claim on profits in the ratio of 75 per cent to JP Morgan and 25 per cent to promoters of Amrapali Homes Project Private Limited and Ultra Home. Later, the same number of shares were bought back from JP Morgan for Rs 140 crore by two companies M/s Neelkanth and M/s Rudraksha, owned by a peon and an office boy of Amrapali's statutory auditor Anil Mittal.

A bench of Justices Arun Mishra and UU Lalit was told by ED joint director Rajeshwar Singh, who is supervising the probe against JP Morgan, that the MNC remitted the money back to the USA. "They (JP Morgan) have lot of properties in India. We want you to attach their office or corporate properties of like amount. Then they will come running to us and we will see to it," the bench said.

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Singh said that now the adjudication process against the firm has begun as per the law. The bench also allowed the ED to take into custody defunct group's CMD Anil Kumar Sharma and other two directors Shiv Priya and Ajay Kumar, who are behind bars on the top court's order for interrogation under alleged money laundering offences. It said that the ED can take them into custody immediately and once interrogation is over, they can be put back into jail here.

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