The Enforcement Directorate (ED) announced on Thursday that it has provisionally attached 30 properties in the United States, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), and Thailand as part of a money laundering investigation related to a fraudulent investment scheme associated with the alleged “Pan Card Club” case, which amounts to over ₹5,000 crore. These assets are linked to the overseas branches of Panoramic Universal Ltd (PUL) based in Mumbai, as well as the late Sudhir Moravekar, who is implicated in the case, according to a statement from the agency.
The ED noted that all these assets were acquired through payments totaling ₹54.32 crore made between 2002 and 2015.
Breakdown of Attached Properties
- Thailand: 22 properties
- UAE: 6 properties
- United States: 2 properties
The investigation centers on the “Pancard Clubs investment” fraud, originally triggered by an FIR filed by the Economic Offences Wing of the Maharashtra Police. According to the ED, between 1997 and 2017, Pan Card Limited (PCL) collected illegal investments from approximately 5.1 million individuals across India and subsequently failed to return more than ₹5,000 crore to many of these investors.
The Economic Offences Wing has filed charges against PCL, PUL, and an additional 44 affiliated companies, alongside six directors and five marketing representatives of PCL, under various sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and the Maharashtra Protection of Interest of Depositors (In Financial Establishments) Act.
The inquiry revealed that around ₹99 crore classified as “proceeds of crime” was improperly transferred from PCL to PUL, including funds from Moravekar’s family members’ personal accounts. The ED’s findings also uncovered that in 2002, PUL acquired a hotel in New Zealand through overseas direct investments (ODI); however, the asset was later sold, and the wholly-owned subsidiary in New Zealand was closed without proper notification to the Reserve Bank of India (RBI).
Additionally, ODI investments were made in the United States, UAE, Thailand, and Singapore, with remittances of approximately ₹100 crore being transferred from 2002 to 2014. The agency indicated that the properties belonging to these overseas entities were being prepared for sale by the sons of Moravekar, particularly those located in the US and UAE.