Rs 100 Crore Restituted in Media Company Fraud Case: ED

New Delhi, Jan 30 (PTI) The ED on Thursday said it restituted assets worth Rs 100 crore to a consortium of banks allegedly defrauded by a Delhi-based media company and its promoters.

The properties were "restored" to the liquidator of Pixion Media Limited (on behalf of the banks).

Assets totalling about Rs 156 crore were attached during the course of the investigation under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), the federal agency said in a statement.

These included commercial and residential assets and bank deposits.

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) case stems from a clutch of FIRs filed by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) against Pixion Media Private Limited, Pearl Vision Private Limited, Mahuaa Media Private Limited, Century Communication Limited, Pixion Vision Private Limited and Pearl Studios Private Limited related to Prabodh Kumar Tewari alias PK Tewari for "cheating" banks to the tune of Rs 657.11 crore.

The CBI FIRs were filed on the basis of written complaints by the Punjab National Bank, Indian Overseas Bank, Oriental Bank of Commerce, State Bank of India and the Bank of India, among others, the agency said.

The creditor banks, the agency said, had initiated Corporate Insolvency Resolution Process under the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code and a liquidator was appointed by the National Company Law Tribunal in August 2019.

After the banks (legitimate claimants of the attached assets) filed an application through the liquidator before a special PMLA court for restoration of "some" of the attached properties, the ED gave its consent for the restitution of these assets, as allowed under Section 8(8) of the PMLA, the agency said.

The court issued an order on January 29 for restoration of properties worth about Rs 100 crore to the liquidator of Pixion Media Private Limited and Pearl Vision Private Limited, it said.

The agency alleged that Tewari and his family members availed themselves of bank loans and cash credit limits "dishonestly" by submitting "forged" invoices, CA certificates and insurance policies, among others, and "siphoned off" the loan funds.

This money was "layered and rotated" through a maze of transactions and finally ended up being used for the purchase of various assets in the name of the family members (of the accused) and their related entities, according to the ED.

The agency has of late begun the "restitution of assets" process for genuine or rightful investors who lost their hard-earned money, including in cases such as the Saradha Ponzi "scam" and the alleged bank loan fraud linked to diamantaires Nirav Modi and Mehul Choksi, among others.