With Airlines Already Shut, Former Jet Airways Boss Naresh Goyal Booked For Money Laundering
Trouble is mounting for Naresh Goyal, former chairman of the grounded Jet Airways after the Enforcement Directorate (ED) filed a fresh case of money laundering against him and the airlines.On Wednesday, the ED also conducted raids at his premises in Mumbai and also questioned him after filing the case.?
According to reports, the new case is related to the alleged irregularities committed by the grounded airline, including diversion of funds.The NRI businessman is already facing another probe for alleged Foreign Exchange Management Act (FEMA) violations, which was registered last year.?
Last year in August, the ED carried out searches at the residence of Goyal and has got details of 19 companies held by him of which five are located abroad and how money was siphoned off to other countries through dubious transactions.?
During searches last year, the ED seized several incriminating documents related to the payments made to foreign companies and digital evidences have been seized.The official said the agency has taken up the investigation into alleged violation of the FEMA against Jet Airways and Goyal based on complaints from various sources.
According to ED, the business empire of Goyal, includes 19 privately-held companies of which 14 are registered in India and five are registered abroad.An ED official had earlier said, Goyal "indirectly controls" various entities "abroad" some of which are in tax havens.?
A full-service carrier, Jet Airways shut operations on April 17 after running out of funds. The 70-year-old and his wife had stepped down from their posts at the airline in March last year, under an agreement with the lenders who had demanded it for a rescue plan for the airline, which was once the biggest in India in terms of passengers and fleet.?
However, the rival plan failed and the airline was grounded leaving thousands of employees in the lurch.The leased aircrafts have since been taken away by their owners and those owned by the Jet and its slots have been leased out to competitors on a temporary basis.?
Several attempts to sell the airline too have failed as potential buyers including Etihad which already had a stake in Jet Airways backed out.On 20 June, the Mumbai bench of the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) admitted Jet Airways under the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (IBC) after lenders referred it to the bankruptcy tribunal.A consortium of 26 bankers, led by the State Bank of India, had approached the tribunal to recover dues of over Rs 8,500 crore.? ?
