Mumbai: Enforcement Directorate (ED) has attached 154 flats and receivables against 20 flats in Mumbai collectively worth Rs 186 crore in a money laundering case against Kapil Wadhawan, brother Dheeraj Wadhawan and their business enterprise DHFL for defrauding a consortium of 17 banks led by Union Bank of India of Rs 34,615 crore. The attached flats are in buildings developed by the siblings in Kurla.Earlier, the investigating agency had attached assets worth Rs 70.4 crore, including paintings, sculptures, two flats in Bandra, expensive watches, diamond jewellery and a 20% stake in a helicopter. With the recent attachment, the value of the total properties attached stands at Rs 256 crore. ED said its investigation revealed that DHFL’s erstwhile promoter Kapil Wadhawan, Dheeraj Wadhawan and others were involved in siphoning off and misappropriating bank loan funds by falsifying the company’s books and dishonestly defaulting on the bank loans. Kapil and Dheeraj conspired to divert DHFL funds through proxy companies and inter-corporate deposits for fraudulent trading in DHFL shares, it said in a press release on Tuesday. In September 2018, after RBI refused to grant an extension to then CEO of Yes Bank Rana Kapoor for two more years, who had financial links with the Wadhawans, there was a drastic fall in the share price of DHFL at the stock exchange. It was alleged that Kapil Wadhawan diverted Rs 115 crore to a broker from their firm in the guise of loans through a builder with the instructions to purchase DHFL’s shares at a lower price for future profit. The Wadhawan brothers are facing money laundering and bank fraud investigations in multiple cases registered by ED and Central Bureau of Investigation. They took credit facilities of Rs 42,871 crore in the name of DHFL from the consortium of banks and allegedly diverted it to companies associated with them in the form of loans. Subsequently, DHFL defaulted on an outstanding loan amount of Rs 34,615 crore. Of the total defrauded amount, the Wadhawan siblings allegedly used 66 entities associated with them or their associates to divert Rs 24,595 crore from DHFL under the guise of loans, of which Rs 11,909 crore is still outstanding, said sources. Additionally, DHFL allegedly disbursed Rs 14,000 crore in false loans in the names of 1.8 lakh non-existent persons as housing loans and maintained those records, referring to them as ‘Bandra books’, which later turned into non-performing assets.
