Two Chennai-based businessmen, Sudarshan Venkatraman and Ramanujam Sesharathnam, have been declared fugitive economic offenders by a Tamil Nadu court on charges of laundering nearly ₹186 crore of bank loans they took on behalf of their company Zylog Systems Limited.

The Enforcement Directorate officially stated that XIII Additional Special CBI Court Judge of Chennai S Ezhilan Velan declared Venkatraman and Sesharathnam, erstwhile promoter directors of M/s Zylog Systems Limited, as fugitive economic offenders for the crimes committed under the Fugitive Economic Offenders Act, 2018 (FEOA) in Spl CC 12 and Spl CC 13 of 2022.

“ED investigation under PMLA revealed that proceeds of crime to the extent of ₹186 crore had been derived by the accused by committing the scheduled offences and of out of this, proceeds of crime to the extent of ₹58.12 crore has been taken outside the country by Sudarsan Venkatraman & Ramanujam Sesharathnam under the guise of making remittances to their subsidiary viz. M/s.ZSL Inc., USA, and also against the bogus invoices raised by one of the vendors of ZSL company viz. M/s ISS Inc,” the agency said in a statement.

Earlier, ‘Provisional Attachment Orders’ worth ₹33 crore were issued and subsequently prosecution complaint was also filed by ED against Venkatraman, Sesharathnam, and others before the Additional Special CBI Court Chennai for money laundering offence. The attached properties worth ₹33 crore have also been confiscated to the Government of India by the Chennai court under the Fugitive Economic Offenders Act, the ED informed.

The agency initiated a probe under the PMLA on the basis of FIRs registered by the bank securities and fraud cell of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) in Bangalore. Charges under various sections of the Indian Penal Code and Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988, were also invoked against Venkatraman, Sesharathnam, and others.

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