ED Attaches Educomp Group Company’s Assets Worth INR 90.31 Cr Under Money Laundering Case

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has attached assets worth INR 90.31 Cr of Educomp Group under the anti-money laundering law in connection with an alleged bank loan fraud case.  

According to an ET report, a provisional order for attachment of the properties has been issued under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) against Educomp Professional Education Ltd, a group company of the Educomp Group. 

Edu Smart Services (ESPL), a subsidiary of Educomp Solutions (ESL), diverted bank loan funds of INR 90.31 Cr. Through a web of transactions, ESPL created assets at Ranga Reddy district in Telangana in the name of sister concern Educomp Professional Education Ltd. 

“This amount of INR 90.31Cr, in the form of parcels of land and rent, is proceeds of crime and was accordingly attached as per provisions of the PMLA,” the ED said.

In this case, the total default in loan repayment causing wrongful loss to the lending banks is of INR 1,955.36 Cr.

Founded by Shantanu Prakash, Educomp Group is presently going through a corporate insolvency resolution process.

The ED’s case of money laundering against the Gurugram-based education company–Educomp Group resulted from an FIR filed by CBI against the accused company and its promoters.

Earlier in February 2020, the CBI had booked Educomp Solutions, its subsidiary and directors for allegedly defrauding an SBI-led consortium of 13 banks of INR 1,955 Cr. 

The CBI had booked Educomp Solutions Ltd, its managing director–Shantanu Prakash, guarantor Jagdish Prakash, its subsidiary–Edu Smart Services and directors–Vijay Kumar Choudhary and Vinod Kumar Dandona for criminal conspiracy, cheating, forgery and under provisions of the Prevention of Corruption Act.

ESL originally creates online educational content for schools and vocational courses under the brands–Smartclass and Edureach respectively. It used to have tripartite agreements with ESPL and schools for providing the digital content. 

Under the Smartclass business, ESL used to sell hardware and digital content to ESPL to sell it to schools with realisation of sales spread over a contract period of five years on quarterly basis. 

It is reported that ESPL had sought term loans from consortium members by keeping contracted future cash flows from schools as security, which was sanctioned. The loans were supposed to be passed to the creditor, ESL. 

Later on, ESL stopped selling ‘Smartclass’ through ESPL and started selling directly to schools.

The banks restructured ESPL’s debt, closing its term loan accounts and transferring liabilities to ESL, officials said. 

Bank disbursed fresh term loans to ESL with future receivables of ESPL also transferred to it. Due to non-fulfilment of the terms and conditions of the loans, ESL loan accounts became non-performing assets (NPA) in 2016.

In addition, it is alleged that ESL and ESPL, through their directors, forged the tripartite agreements with schools and induced the banks for disbursement of term loans by including non-implemented, cancelled or pre-closed contracts in the list of executed contracts.

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