The Enforcement Directorate has provisionally attached assets worth ₹578 crore of Wadhawan Global Capital (UK) in connection with the fraud at Uttar Pradesh Power Corporation Limited’s (UPPCL) provident fund which involves Dewan Housing Finance Corporation Ltd (DHFL).
WGC-UK is owned by Kapil Wadhawan and Dheeraj Wadhawan. “The attached assets are in the form of investment made by Wadhawans through WGC-UK in UK based companies,” the ED said in a statement on Tuesday.
The agency had initiated money laundering investigation on the basis of an FIR registered by Lucknow police against some officials of UPPCL for illegal investment of GPF and CPF funds of the employees in DHFL. This was in violation of the government’s notification and directives.
The investigation revealed that DHFL in connivance with UPPCL officials had illegally received ₹4,122.70 crore of GPF and CPF funds of UPPCL’s employees in fixed deposit in DHFL. Out of this, ₹2,267.90 crore of principal amounts is still outstanding to be paid by DHFL.
At this time, DHFL was also engaged in disbursing high value loans to its promoter related firms. All such unsecured loans had been sanctioned under directions of Kapil Wadhawan, who was then Chairman of DHFL and many such loans have turned non performing.
The investigation revealed that many of these loans had been siphoned off without being used for the purpose that they were sanctioned for.
Over ₹1,000 crore generated in this case has been siphoned off to UK by the Wadhawans through seven levels of layering and laundering through more than 30 beneficially owned and controlled Indian firms of Wadhawans.