Fema violation: ED told to attach JP Morgan assets

The ED said it had prima facie found violations of FEMA norms by the US-based JP Morgan and that a complaint in this regard was lodged.

The Supreme Court also allowed the ED to take into custody the defunct group’s CMD, Anil Kumar Sharma, and two other directors, Shiv Priya and Ajay Kumar, who are behind bars on the top court’s order, for interrogation as regards alleged money-laundering offences.

According to the share subscription agreement between JP Morgan and Amrapali Group, the US-based firm had invested Rs 85 crore on October 20, 2010 to have a preferential claim on profits in the ratio of 75 per cent to JP Morgan and 25 per cent to the promoters of Amrapali Homes Project Private Limited and Ultra Home.

Later, the same number of shares was bought back from JP Morgan for Rs 140 crore by two companies -- M/s Neelkanth and M/s Rudraksha -- owned by a peon and an office boy of Amrapali’s statutory auditor Anil Mittal. A bench of justices Arun Mishra and U U Lalit was told by ED Joint Director Rajeshwar Singh, who is supervising the probe against JP Morgan, that the MNC remitted the money back to the United States.