These cos are said to have suspected links with Louis Berger case; list sent to Kolkata counterparts
PANAJI
As part of the country-wide crackdown on shell companies, officials from Enforcement Directorate Goa, have forwarded a list of 14 Kolkata-based shell companies to their Kolkata counterparts for further investigation.
The 14 shell companies rounded up by ED, Goa, have suspected links with the Louis Berger bribery case and allegedly played a role in laundering money to the accused in Goa.
On Saturday, ED conducted raids across 100 locations in 16 states and cracked down on 2,300 shell companies. Sources disclosed that though a large majority of the raids were conducted in Kolkata and Mumbai, it is Kolkata which has been labeled as the ‘hub of all shell companies’ by the investigators as most of these shell companies appear to trace their origins to the East Indian city.
Shell companies or dummy companies act as fronts for money laundering and although these are registered as firms or companies, they are largely inactive and either have low turnovers or low operating income to show. They operate at a nominal expense and numerous firms tend to have the same address. The other markers include investments in unlisted companies, large amounts of petty cash and private firms or individuals holding majority of the shares.
The role of such shell companies came to light during the Goa Police crime branch investigation into the Louis Berger bribery case. The supplementary chargesheet filed by crime branch stated that the trail of money can be established right from 2009 onwards.
During the ED investigation, it came to light that Luis Berger company was awarded a contract of a JICA project for Rs 2.85 crore in 2009 when the actual work was worth only Rs 65 lakh. The remainder Rs 2.20 crore was deliberately
bribed money.
Accordingly, Luis Berger Co issued a cheque of Rs 2.20 crore which was diverted through these 14 shell companies to Delhi-based hawala operator Raichand Soni. It was Soni who delivered the money to accused Digambar Kamat and Churchill Alemao in Goa, sources revealed.
The statement of one Bimal Kuchroo, director of Holistic Urban Innovation Pvt Ltd, appears to have proved crucial in establishing how the bribe money exchanged hands in the Louis Berger matter.
Kuchroo was summoned to facilitate further investigation and to scrutinize the internal investigation of LB-India
During his interrogation, Kuchroo had disclosed that he sent a proposal for the subcontract to LB-India towards JICA water and sewerage project in Goa for Rs 1.44 crore.
Kuchroo stated that he was instructed by Mohanty to enlarge the scope of work and to increase the cost to Rs 4.2 crore. Accordingly, on September 18, 2009, the agreement was executed between the contractor LB Group Inc. and Holistic for a total of Rs 4.2 crore.
Kuchroo also said that Mohanty also informed him despite the contract amount, Holistic has to carry out work of asset management services worth Rs 1.45 crore approximately.
The remainder of the amount was to be returned to Louis Berger officials as a commission towards the subcontract. Scope of work in the final contract document was worth Rs 2.30 crore. However, Holistic paid M/s Gagandeep Tradelink Pvt Ltd the amount mentioned in the subcontract.
The investigating agency has stated that Kuchroo couldn’t submit either invoices or any other documents substantiating the work done for the JICA project in Goa.
In addition to this, the charge sheet also spoke of the report attached in the email received from Tobias Trautner, Vice President and general counsel (International) Louis Berger Inc.
