Odisha: The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has attached assets valued over Rs 3.92 crore of a former BJD MLA and a media company in a money laundering case against the Odisha-based Seashore Group of entities accused of perpetrating an alleged ponzi fraud, officials said on Saturday.

In a statement, the central agency claimed that a provisional order under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) had been issued to seize Rs 25 lakh in bank deposits held at the SBI Cuttack branch by Pravat Biswal, a three-time former MLA from the Cuttack-Choudwar assembly seat in Odisha.

The CBI detained Biswal in this matter in 2017. Later, bail was granted to him. The ED also attached an immovable property belonging to Media Guru Consultants Pvt. Ltd in Noida, Uttar Pradesh. The attached assets are worth a total of Rs 3,92,20,000, according to the Enforcement Directorate (ED).
According to the complaint, the Seashore Group of Companies "fraudulently and dishonestly collected huge sums from the general public, of which Rs 25 lakh was diverted to the ex-MLA and his family members and Rs 4 crore was diverted to Media Guru Consultants Pvt Ltd to set up a news and current affairs TV channel named STV Samachar."

The CBI and the Economic Offenses Wing (EOW) of the Odisha Police filed FIRs and charge sheets against the Seashore Group and its proprietors, which led to the money laundering case.
The ED, this was a ponzi scam case of fraudulent collection of deposits from the gullible public in the guise of issuance of preferential shares by enrolling the depositors as members of cooperative societies.

The ED said, "These companies were not listed at the National Stock Exchange nor registered as non-banking finance companies (NBFC) with the RBI and as such were not authorised to receive such public deposits."

According to the report, despite the depositors' repeated requests and approaches, the accused companies abruptly stopped operating, refused to restore money to depositors after maturity, and failed to pay any interest on the accounts.

Assets valued Rs.258 crore have been attached earlier by the ED in this case.

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