ED arrests Amtek's Arvind Dham in Rs 25,000 crore money laundering case

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has arrested Arvind Dham, promoter of Amtek Group, in relation with a money laundering probe for alleged bank fraud to the tune of Rs 25,000 crore. A special PMLA (Prevention of Money Laundering Act) court has granted Dham seven days in custody.

Searches were conducted by the agency last month at around 35 locations in Delhi-NCR, Mumbai, and Nagpur as part of its money laundering probe. The searches were also carried out on the company’s directors and others.

The ED arrest follows the criminal complaint against Dham and others by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) against a group entity of Amtek—ACIL Ltd. They have been alleged of bank fraud in a number of listed companies which had faced bankruptcy, leaving the banks with a nominal recovery. The ED estimates the loss to the exchequer to be about Rs 10,000-15,000 crore.

“Arvind Dham, the promoter and one of the directors of the Amtek Group, was taken into custody on Tuesday (July 9). The money laundering case against the company and its directors stems from a CBI FIR that was registered based on written complaints from the IDBI Bank and the Bank of Maharashtra,” an ED spokesperson said in a statement.

“It was alleged that loans were diverted through cheating, fraud and criminal breach of trust, causing a wrongful loss of Rs 673.35 crore to the banks. The Supreme Court in February, while deciding a public interest petition against the Amtek Auto group of companies, had directed the ED to investigate the case,” the spokesperson said.