ED arrests two promoters of oil firm in Rs 300 crore money laundering case

New Delhi: The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has arrested two promoters of a Delhi-based oil and gas integrated services provider company on money laundering charges in an alleged bank fraud case of more than Rs 300 crore, official sources said Thursday.

Prem Singhee and Padam Singhee of the SVOGL Oil Gas and Energy Ltd. have been taken into custody under the provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), the sources said.

The two will be produced before a local court in the national capital where the ED will seek their remand for custodial interrogation.

The money laundering case stems from a CBI FIR against the SVOGL Oil Gas and Energy Limited, Max Tech Oil and Gas Services Pvt Ltd., their promoters Prem Singhee and Padam Singhee and some others.

The promoters are alleged to have cheated banks to the tune of Rs 252 crore (availed from the Punjab National Bank in the name of SVOGL) and Rs 65 crore (availed from the Bank of India in the name of Max Tech).

The ED had carried out raids in this case last year in December at locations in Delhi-NCR, Haryana, Chhattisgarh and Maharashtra. In January, it provisionally attached assets worth Rs 58.82 crore as part of this investigation.

"The attached assets were held in the name of shell companies controlled by Padam Singhee," the agency had said in a statement.

It said money was "transferred to various shell (dummy) companies in guise of expenses and later siphoned off by the promoters".

The accused also made investments which were unconnected to the intended purposes of bank loans, the agency had alleged.