ED Attaches ₹5,000 Cr Worth of Overseas Assets in Pan Card Club Investor Scam
New Delhi:
The Enforcement Directorate (ED) announced on Thursday that it has provisionally attached 30 overseas properties — located in the United States, United Arab Emirates, and Thailand — as part of its ongoing money laundering investigation into the infamous Pan Card Club investment fraud case, which allegedly duped investors of over ₹5,000 crore.
According to the ED, these properties are registered under the names of Panoramic Universal Ltd (PUL), a Mumbai-based company, and Late Sudhir Moravekar, who is one of the main accused in the case. The attachments have been made under the provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).
The agency stated that payments amounting to ₹54.32 crore were made between 2002 and 2015 to acquire these properties. Among the 30 assets now under ED control, 22 are situated in Thailand, 6 in the UAE, and 2 in the US.
This crackdown stems from an FIR filed by Maharashtra Police in connection with the ‘Pancard Clubs investment’ fraud. Investigations revealed that between 1997 and 2017, Pan Card Ltd (PCL) illegally collected funds from nearly 51 lakh investors across India and failed to return over ₹5,000 crore to many of them.
A chargesheet has already been filed by the Economic Offences Wing (EOW) against PCL, PUL, 44 related firms, six directors, and five marketing agents under various sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and the Maharashtra Protection of Interest of Depositors Act.
The ED further uncovered that around ₹99 crore in proceeds of crime were funneled from PCL to PUL and into personal accounts linked to Moravekar’s family. One of the earliest suspicious deals dates back to 2002, when a hotel was acquired in New Zealand via overseas direct investments. That property was later sold, and the New Zealand subsidiary of PUL was shut down without informing the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), a serious regulatory violation.
Similar overseas direct investments were made in the US, UAE, Thailand, and Singapore, with remittances totaling around ₹100 crore from 2002 to 2014. The ED also noted that Moravekar’s sons were planning to sell off some of the assets based in the US and UAE before the current enforcement action.