ED arrests MD of Manipur company in Ponzi-linked money laundering case

The Enforcement Directorate has arrested the managing director of a Manipur-based company in a money laundering case linked to a Ponzi scheme through which numerous investors were duped to the tune of INR 580 crore.

The federal probe agency on Tuesday said in a statement that it also seized INR 34 lakh in cash and froze bank deposits worth over INR 1.34 crore after it raided multiple locations of Lamjingba Group of companies and its MD Sanasam Jacky Singh in Gurugram (Haryana), Kolkata (West Bengal) and Manipur recently.

Singh was arrested on January 21 and a court later sent him to ED custody, the agency said.

The probe pertains to a “large-scale Ponzi scheme operated by Sanasam Jacky Singh and as a result of the searches, INR 34 lakh cash, documents like copies of property documents, list of investors, details of funds collected from the investors, foreign investments etc. have been seized,” it said.

The money laundering case of the ED, filed under the criminal sections of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), stems from seven FIRs filed by the Manipur Police against the accused.

The police alleged, the ED said, that the accused “cheated more than 15,000 investors in Manipur, misappropriated and siphoned off investor’s funds.”

“They had collected funds to the tune of more than INR 580 crore from the public with a promise of exorbitant returns,” the police said in its complaint.

“The company closed its door to the investors since the first quarter of 2020 without returning the promised funds to the investor,” the police FIR said.

Four immovable properties located in Gurugram and Manipur’s capital city of Imphal have also been seized during the searches, the ED said.