Four promoters of Hyderabad firm arrested for laundering 6k cr

NEW DELHI: In the

Paradise Paper leak case

, the Enforcement Directorate on Wednesday arrested four promoters of Hyderabad-based Agri Gold group of companies accusing them of laundering Rs 6,400 crore. The accused have been remanded to ED custody for 14 days by a PMLA court in Hyderabad.


“Their names figured in the Paradise paper leak case as they had incorporated companies with the help of the infamous Mossack Fonsenca in Cayman Islands,” ED said.

Avva Venkata Rama Rao, the main accused in the case, along with his seven brothers and other associates floated more than 150 companies and started collecting deposits from the public with a promise of providing developed plots/farm lands or withdrawal at a high rate of return on maturity/pre-term.

The group collected deposits illegally from across the country, including Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra, Chhattisgarh, Odisha and Andaman and Nicobar Islands.

“Thousands of

commission agents

were engaged to lure people with various schemes for hefty commission and the accused managed to collect Rs 6,380 crore from over 32 lakh investors, the ED claimed in its remand plea.

“Investigation revealed that the accused also set up companies abroad and diverted large amounts of funds to off-shore entities,” it said.

Searches were conducted at the residences of Avva Venkata Rama Rao and others, including the residences of auditors, at Vijayawada and Hyderabad earlier when the agency had seized several property related documents and other transaction details.

The three accused arrested are Avva Venkata Rama Rao,

Avva Venkata Seshu Narayana Rao

and

Avva Hema

Sundara Vara Prasad. All of them have been accused of money laundering. Further investigation is under progress, ED said.

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