JP Morgan Assets To Be Attached For Alleged Foreign Exchange Violation

The Supreme Court has told the Enforcement Directorate to attach Indian properties of JP Morgan, which engaged in a transaction with the now-defunct Amrapali Group to allegedly siphon off homebuyers' money in violation of the Foreign Exchange Management Act (FEMA) and foreign direct investment norms.

The ED said it found violations of FEMA norms by the US-based JP Morgan and that a complaint has been filed.

The Supreme Court 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 over alleged money-laundering.

According to the share subscription agreement between JP Morgan and Amrapali Group, the US-based firm 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 - Neelkanth, and Rudraksha - owned by a peon and an office boy of Amrapali's statutory auditor Anil Mittal.

A bench of Justices Arun Mishra and UU Lalit was told by the ED's Joint Director Rajeshwar Singh, who is supervising the probe against JP Morgan, that the firm remitted the money back to the US.

"They (JP Morgan) have a lot of properties in India. We want you to attach their office or corporate properties of a like amount. Then they will come running to us and we will see to it," the bench said.

Mr Singh said the adjudication process against the firm had begun in accordance with law. On December 2 last year, the ED had informed the top court that it had prima facie found evidence of violation of FEMA by the multi-national firm and recorded the statements of the country head of the company on its dealings with Amrapali Group.