ED Arrests Cox & Kings’ CFO, Internal Auditor in Yes Bank Case

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(Photo: PTI)

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Tuesday, 6 October, said it has arrested the CFO and internal auditor of Cox & Kings Group (CKG) in connection with the Yes Bank case.

The arrested accused have been identified as Anil Khandelwal, CFO of CKG, and Naresh Jain, internal auditor of CKG. They were held under sections of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).

Both of them were produced before a court and sent to seven days ED custody.

An ED official said, "During investigation in the money laundering case, it has surfaced that Yes Bank has total outstanding of Rs 3,642 crore in respect of Cox & Kings Group of Companies (CKG)."

"Further investigation revealed that CKG forged its consolidated financials by manipulating the balance sheets of overseas subsidiaries. In addition, some board resolutions submitted to banks for sanctioning the loans were also found to be forged," the official added.

He said that during the investigation, it was also revealed that the loan sanction from Yes Bank was driven by then CMD Rana Kapoor, and was given bypassing the norms.

The agency gathered the evidence regarding clear instruction of Kapoor to the concerned bank officials to get the said loan continued and not to make efforts to recover it, the official said.

"Investigation also revealed that during financial years 2015 to 2019, sales of Rs 3,908 crore were made to 15 non-existent/fictitious customers," he said, adding that majority of collections shown in ledgers from Ezeego (another group entity of CKG) was not found in the bank statements.

The official also said that there are 15 fictitious high-value debtors reflected in the books of accounts.

"Another 147 sets of customers also appeared to be suspicious and non-existent. The Cox & Kings Limited (CKL) has diverted Rs 1,100 crore to another stressed company without any approval of the board which has no business relationship with the company," he said.

"During the whole process Khandelwal and Jain acquired the mortgaged property amounting to Rs 63 crore in their owned business entity – Reward Business Solutions, without paying a penny from their pocket."

Rana Kapoor’s London Properties Attached Last Month

Investigation further revealed that Khandelwal and Jain purchased various immovable properties from the funds diverted from CKG.

"Further investigation revealed that from Ezeego, Rs 150 crore were diverted to Redkite Capital Private Limited which was promoted by family members of Khandelwal, CFO of CKL, and Jain, internal auditor of CKL," the official said.

The official alleged that investigation so far has revealed that the bank transactions of CKG are not matching with the books of accounts, and Khandelwal and Jain created disparities between the books of accounts and the bank statements to camouflage the fraud.

ED had already arrested Kapoor in March this year.

Last month, the agency attached Kapoor's properties in London valued at Rs 127 crore. On July 9, it attached Rs 2,203 crore of assets – comprising 344 bank accounts, investments and high-end vehicles in India, New York and Australia – of Kapoor and his family, Dheeraj and Kapil Wadhawan and others under the PMLA in the Rs 3,700 crore fraud case.