Latest news with #shell
New Indian Express
9 hours ago
- Business
- New Indian Express
AP liquor scam: SIT raids shell firms after Rs 11 crore cash haul; ED steps up parallel probe
VIJAYAWADA: In a major development in the alleged liquor scam, two teams of the Special Investigation Team (SIT) on Thursday conducted raids on offices of shell companies in Mumbai and other locations, seizing key documents and incriminating evidence. The raids followed the recovery of Rs 11 crore in unaccounted cash from a farmhouse in Telangana on Tuesday night. Investigators believe more illicit money may be hidden in properties linked to the accused or their associates. Meanwhile, the Enforcement Directorate (ED), which has already registered an Enforcement Case Information Report (ECIR) and questioned the prime accused, Kesireddy Rajashekar Reddy alias Raj Kesireddy, has sought details of the farmhouse seizure and ownership. 'Details of the raid have been shared with ED as part of their parallel investigation,' a source confirmed. Based on information obtained from the arrested accused, SIT teams tracked down multiple offices allegedly set up across India. Investigators suspect nearly 25 shell companies were floated to divert kickbacks from liquor distilleries, later routed into real estate, film production, and other ventures, including election-related funding. 'We are probing the ownership and links of these firms to the accused to gather further evidence,' said a senior official. Meanwhile, the ACB court in Vijayawada has directed SIT officials to deposit the seized `11 crore into the State Bank of India's Machavaram branch and furnish the account details to the court.
Hindustan Times
6 days ago
- Hindustan Times
UP ATS seeks custody of Chhangur Baba, Jamaluddin in money laundering activities
The Uttar Pradesh anti-terrorism squad (ATS) has filed a fresh application seeking police custody remand (PCR) of Jalaluddin Shah alias Chhangur Baba, 78, and his key associate Naveen Rohra alias Jamaluddin, 45, in connection with an alleged religious conversion and money laundering racket in Balrampur, officials confirmed on Saturday. This is the second remand application for Chhangur Baba, who was earlier taken into custody along with Naveen's wife Neetu Rohra alias Nasreen. (Sourced) This is the second remand application for Chhangur Baba, who was earlier taken into custody along with Naveen's wife Neetu Rohra alias Nasreen. A senior ATS official said the application was submitted to the Lucknow ATS court on Thursday and is likely to be heard on Monday. If allowed, the remand would facilitate further interrogation regarding alleged offshore shell companies, foreign funding, and suspected money laundering linked to the case. According to the official, Chhangur Baba is the alleged mastermind of the racket, accused of targeting Hindu girls across Balrampur and other districts. The gang allegedly received over ₹100 crore in foreign funding over the past three years. The official further stated that Naveen Rohra played a crucial role in the operations, allegedly participating in conversion activities and financial transactions. His wife, Neetu, was also allegedly involved in executing the activities. The ATS began investigating the racket after an FIR was registered on November 16, 2024. The Enforcement Directorate took up a parallel probe on July 8, 2025, to examine financial transactions and assets. Chhangur Baba and Neetu were arrested on July 5. Earlier, Mehboob, 45, son of Chhangur Baba, and Naveen were held on April 8, 2025. Rashid Shah, 40, from Utraula in Balrampur, was arrested on July 17, followed by the arrests of Sabroz and Sahabuddin on July 18. Two other accused, Ramzan and Idul Islam, are still absconding. In a related development, a court clerk, Rajesh Kumar Upadhyaya, was arrested on July 19 for alleged connivance. Upadhyaya was the first person to be arrested despite his name not appearing in the accused column of the FIR.
Yahoo
25-07-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Trump Spending $10 Million Of Taxpayer Money To Promote His Scotland Golf Course
WASHINGTON – American taxpayers will shell out at least $10 million over the next several days so President Donald Trump can participate in a marketing photo opportunity at his golf resort in Aberdeen, Scotland — the profits from which will flow directly into his own pocket. Trump is planning to visit his golf resorts in both Aberdeen on the east coast and Turnberry on the west. His appearance in Aberdeen coincides with the grand opening of a second 18-hole course there, which Trump has been personally publicizing in recent years. The trip is unrelated to a planned state visit to the United Kingdom in September, making it by far the most expensive golf vacation to date in either of his terms. It will also increase the total golf tab in his second term to at least $52 million. He spent $152 million in taxpayer money playing golf at his own resorts in his first term. 'He's using the presidency to market his golf courses,' said Richard Painter, the top ethics lawyer in George W. Bush's second-term White House. 'At the taxpayer's expense, he's promoting himself.' 'We've reached a point where the Oval Office is an extension of the Trump Organization, and American taxpayers are footing the bill,' added Jordan Libowitz with the group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington. 'A president should not be spending time trying to make money in a foreign country while in office, but if they do, at the very least they could pick up the tab for their business trips.' Trump's White House officials would not respond to numerous HuffPost queries on the matter, including specifically whether Trump planned to reimburse the U.S. Treasury. In public statements, both Trump and his aides have only spoken about a planned meeting with British Prime Minister Keir Starmer. A HuffPost analysis of the expenses required by a presidential foreign trip produced a conservative estimate of $9.7 million for the five-day jaunt. It is based on the price tags of the various components — the hourly operating cost of Air Force One; the need to ferry Marine One helicopters and motorcade vehicles across the Atlantic aboard C-17 transports; Secret Service overtime expenses, etc. — as laid out in a General Accounting Office report about Trump's trips to his Palm Beach, Florida, country club in 2017. The HuffPost figure is based on the 2017 dollars used in the GAO report, so the actual total is almost certainly substantially higher in today's dollars. Adjusting the number to account for the inflation over the subsequent eight years, for example, produces a total of $12.8 million. An overseas presidential trip is dramatically more expensive than a domestic one. A flight from Joint Base Andrews to Palm Beach International is two hours each way. But a flight from suburban Washington, D.C., to Scotland will be six hours in one direction and closer to seven in the other. Air Force One has a per-hour operating cost of $273,063, meaning the total for just flying the presidential plane will be $3.8 million for the Scotland trip. A foreign trip also requires the use of a second plane for the larger number of staff that must travel, including those from the State Department and other agencies that typically would not travel domestically. It is unclear what second aircraft will be used. The $9.7 million estimate assumes a much cheaper modified Boeing 757 will be the second plane, but if instead it is another modified 747 like the primary Air Force One, that would dramatically increase the total price tag. Trump visited his golf resorts in Turnberry and Doonbeg, Ireland, during his first term, but both were incorporated into official visits. The first cost taxpayers $3 million more than if he had simply remained in London, and the second added $3.6 million to the trip cost. In contrast, the Scotland trip, which is to begin with an Air Force One flight there Friday morning, is primarily about golf, with a meeting with Starmer thrown in. 'Trump's visit is not in service to the American people or to the office of the president,' said Norm Eisen, an ethics lawyer in the Obama White House. 'It only serves his own personal business interests.' The new course, named after Trump's mother, Mary Anne MacLeod, is set to open with a senior PGA tournament on Thursday, July 31, before opening to the public on Aug. 13. 'We're going to have a meeting with ― a state meeting with the prime minister, and that's going to be up in Aberdeen,' Trump told the BBC earlier this month. But the head of state in the United Kingdom is King Charles, and that meeting will not happen until September. Further, Aberdeen is not the capital of the United Kingdom, or even of Scotland. It is, however, home to Trump's new golf course fronting the North Sea, the second at the Aberdeen resort, which Trump boasted about in a video posted to social media by his Trump International Scotland holding company in 2023. 'We built a course that's recognized as one of the greatest golf courses in the world. Some people say it's the greatest course ever built,' he said, as the video shows him walking the site wearing a baby-blue, pom-pom-topped winter cap. 'We'll have many, many championships here... I think it'll be a great success.' The Scotland marketing trip is not the first time Trump has used taxpayer resources and the imprimatur and trappings of the presidency to promote events that put money into his own bank account. In April, he flew Air Force One from Palm Beach to Miami International Airport and then took a Marine Corps helicopter to his Doral golf resort less than two miles away. There, he attended a private dinner for the Saudi-backed LIV golf tournament — a business partner of his — before returning to Mar-a-Lago the same way he came. The following month, Trump flew Marine One from the White House to his golf resort in Northern Virginia to attend a dinner for the 220 winners of a contest to see who could purchase the most 'meme' crypto coins he is producing. Both events created the spectacle of the presidential helicopter landing at his golf courses. That visual will likely be repeated for Trump's coming visits to both Turnberry and Aberdeen. (Following his visit to Doonbeg, the resort posted videos of Marine One landing there on social media, but deleted them after HuffPost began inquiring.) Trump similarly used his office to enrich himself in the first term, too. He told the Republican National Committee to use properties he owned for their meetings, and encouraged other Republican candidates and committees to do the same. He and his top appointees encouraged the use of the hotel he owned at the time five blocks from the White House as a gathering spot for administration officials and both domestic and foreign lobbyists seeking favors. Some delegations from overseas took blocks of rooms or even a whole floor during their visits. Every dime of profit from the restaurants and room rentals flowed into a trust that benefited him personally. As blatant as that was, his behavior in the second term is even more egregious, critics said. 'He did this in the first term, but it's just gotten a lot worse,' Painter said, pointing out that if Trump is taking payments from the U.S. Secret Service or other government agencies for lodging staff at his resorts, that would violate the Constitution's 'emoluments' clause. He acknowledged, though, that a president returned to office despite attempting a coup to remain in power and also retaining secret documents he took with him to his country club is not likely to care about the propriety of using his office for his personal gain. 'That's the situation we're in,' Painter said. 'I think there's a lot more tolerance of bad actions in his second term than in the first term.'
&w=3840&q=100)
Business Standard
22-07-2025
- Business
- Business Standard
DRI busts racket involved in duty evasion in branded furniture imports
DRI office₹have busted a racket involved in undervaluation of imports of branded luxury furniture and arrested three persons for customs duty evasion of ₹30 crore, the finance ministry said on Tuesday. Investigation conducted thus far revealed that branded luxury furniture was being directly sourced by a beneficial importer from reputed Italian and other European suppliers, and invoicing was being done in the names of shell companies based in jurisdictions such as Dubai. In parallel, fabricated invoices were obtained through a Singapore-based intermediary in the names of dummy importe₹falsely declaring the goods as unbranded furniture at significantly undervalued rates to Customs. Once cleared through Customs, the goods were transferred on paper to the intended beneficial owner via a local intermediary created for this purpose, while the goods were directly sent to the customer on the instructions of beneficial owner. "Preliminary findings indicate a gross undervaluation of 70 per cent to 90 per cent of the actual transaction value, resulting in estimated customs duty evasion of approximately ₹30 crore," the statement said. The beneficial owner, the dummy importer, and the intermediary have been found in complicity and close conspiracy for executing the whole modus operandi, and the three individuals have been arrested by DRI under provisions of the Customs Act, 1962. Acting on specific intelligence, DRI officials conducted searches across multiple locations, including business premises, warehouses, offices of freight forwarders, customs brokers, and associated entities. The investigation has exposed a complex, intertwined network used for massive undervaluation and misdeclaration of branded luxury furniture operating across multiple jurisdictions, involving the use of dummy importers, local intermediaries, overseas shell entities, and fabricated invoices. Earlier in May 2025, another such case was unearthed by DRI, exposing a similar modus operandi involving the undervaluation of luxury furniture imports, using a front company, which was controlled and managed by another entity to evade customs duties. This case also involved duty evasion exceeding ₹20 crore, resulting in the arrest of three individuals involved.
The Hindu
21-07-2025
- The Hindu
Andhra liquor scam: Former CM Jagan one among those who received kickbacks from distillery companies, says CID remand report
The Crime Investigation Department (CID) police probing into the alleged multi-crore liquor scam stated in its remand report for the arrest of MP P.V. Midhun Reddy that then Chief Minister was one among those who received kickbacks from the distillery companies. The remand report was released late on Sunday night (July 20, 2025.) Police named about 40 persons, including a retired IAS officer, officers of Andhra Pradesh State Beverages Corporation Limited (APSBCL), one MP, former MP, public representatives and others as accused in the scam. 'Accused No.1 Kessireddy Rajashekar Reddy collected the kickbacks and routed to Accused No.4 P.V. Midhun Reddy, Accused No.5 V. Vijaya Sai Reddy and Balaji Govindappa (A-33) before the kickback amount reportedly reached the then Chief Minister,' police investigating the case said in the Midhun Reddy's remand report. 'Kickback negotiations began at 12% and escalated to 20% of the base price. The distillery companies were threatened from business exclusion, if they did not comply with the demands of the liquor syndicate,' as per the report. During investigation, it was revealed that the syndicate members including Kessireddy Rajashekar Reddy, Avinash Reddy alias Sumith (A-7 and co-brother of Kessireddy), MP Midhun Reddy, V. Vijay Sai Reddy (A-5) met on September 13, 2019, at the house of Mr. Vijay Sai Reddy, located at Jubilee Hills, in Hyderabad. Then APSBCL Managing Director D. Vasudeva Reddy (A-5) and D. Satya Prasad (A-3) presented three years liquor sales and other particulars. After analysing the sales reports and the related documents, the accused deduced that they could earn nearly ₹50-60 crore per month through commissions or kickbacks from the liquor suppliers. Under Andhra's new liquor policy, 180 ml of any brand to be sold at ₹99 In the meeting, the syndicate members decided that Mr. Satya Prasad will handle the supplies at the liquor depots and sales at the Government Retail Outlets to bypass the automatic order for supply. The kickbacks were disguised through inflated transactions with bullion merchants and shell companies. Bank records show funds routed through entities such as SPY Distilleries (a brand promoted by the accused), Sanhoc Labs and D-Cart Logistics. To facilitate the payments made through kickbacks or commissions, the distillery companies followed several methods of cash generation from the funds credited by the APSBCL into their accounts. 'They [liquor suppliers] colluded with gold merchants and supplied gold to the accused. Suspicious transactions, worth nearly ₹300-400 crore have been identified from the bank statements of the distillery firms,' the CID officials stated in the report. For collecting kickbacks, the accused established a private network by attracting gullible young graduates including several IIT personnel to act as collection agents (or) mules for making VoIP calls by impersonation and luring them with white collar jobs in the shell companies floated by the syndicate, as per the report.
