The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has initiated the sale of over Rs 6,000 crore worth of attached properties to compensate 32 lakh victims of the Agri Gold ponzi scheme. With the concurrence of the Supreme Court and Andhra Pradesh High Court, the ED seeks to dispose of properties across multiple states to reimburse investors. The agency moved a special PMLA court in Nampally, Hyderabad, against the Agri Gold group of companies and their promoters, seeking to dispose of the attached properties located in Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Karnataka, and Odisha.
PM Narendra Modi had said he was exploring options of changing the law to reimburse victims of frauds by using seized assets of perpetrators of scams. However, there is already a provision under section 8(8) of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, under which attached assets confiscated by ED can be restored to “a claimant with a legitimate interest in the property, who may have suffered a quantifiable loss as a result of the offence of money laundering”. ED’s panchnama for such transfer of attached property may be used as evidence during trial, according to the law.
The agents of the Agri Gold scheme collected more than Rs 6,400 crore from 32 lakh customers. The Andhra Pradesh CID, which had filed the predicate offence against the accused in 2018, had moved the HC earlier, seeking release of ED attachment so that it could distribute the money to the victims. The Agri Gold group and its promoters Avva Venkata Rama Rao and his family members Avva Venkata Seshu Narayana and Avva Hema Sundara Vara Prasad were arrested by ED in Dec 2020.
