The Enforcement Directorate (ED), in its chargesheet, has named former Punjab minister and AAP MLA Sanjeev Arora as the mastermind behind the alleged fake iPhone export scam.
The chargesheet alleges Arora's direct involvement in a Rs 102 crore money laundering probe linked to fraudulent Goods and Services Tax (GST) transactions involving fake mobile phone export bills.
Arora was taken into custody by the ED on June 9 this year on alleged money laundering charges. He is currently lodged in judicial custody and has filed a plea in the Punjab and Haryana High Court seeking regular bail.
According to the chargesheet filed by the ED in a Gurugram court, the probe revealed that Hampton Sky Realty Limited (HSRL), a co-accused in the case along with its promoter-director Arora, formerly known as M/s Ritesh Properties and Industries Limited (RPIL), allegedly orchestrated a complex trade-based money laundering scheme through spurious mobile phone export transactions.
The ED alleged that, under Arora's control and direction, the company routed funds through shell firms and entities without any genuine supply of goods. It allegedly created fictitious and operationally impossible supply chains of mobile phones with inflated values to fraudulently claim export money and GST benefits.
According to the chargesheet, Arora and his firm carried out the bogus trade by creating false domestic procurement trails, manipulating export documentation and customs processes, and integrating funds through export remittances, GST refunds and investments in group entities and immovable properties.
HSRL purportedly purchased high-value Apple iPhones and other electronic devices from multiple supplier entities such as M/s SK Enterprises, M/s Global Traders, M/s Worldwide Electronics, M/s GMG TradelinkPvt. Ltd., M/s Shree Lakshmi Enterprises, M/s Mobile Style, M/s US Enterprises, M/s Anjani International, M/s Maruti Nandan Telecom LLP and others.
The evidence collected by the investigators shows that HSRL and its associates created a fabricated domestic procurement chain through shell entities.
The ED has, at this stage of the investigation, quantified the proceeds of crime at Rs 102,99,21,974, allegedly generated through fictitious export transactions carried out using 43 shipping bills.
According to the investigators, Sanjeev Arora was the key decision-maker behind the mobile phone export business operated by Hampton Sky Realty Limited, despite the company's primary business being in the real estate sector.
Also read: ED attaches ₹55.57-cr assets in GST fraud case linked to Sanjeev
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