ED files charge sheet in Seashore chit fund case in Odisha

Bhubaneswar: Enforcement Directorate (ED) has filed a charge sheet in connection with its money laundering probe in the Rs 500 crore Seashore Group chit fund scam in Odisha.

The charge sheet, also called the prosecution complaint by ED, was filed yesterday before a sessions court in which the agency has named Managing Director of Seashore group of companies Prashant K Dash and his brother Pravat Kumar Dash under provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).

"Prashant, currently in judicial custody, was primarily involved in illegal collection of deposits of about Rs 500 crore from the public with false promises of high returns. The accused had created as many as 21 shell companies and 13 multipurpose co-operative societies for laundering such public deposits and had even issued preference shares showing the laundered money as the capital of one such shell company, Ms Seashore Securities Limited," ED said.

The central probe agency has earlier attached property worth Rs 242 crore of the group under PMLA.

Seashore Group is one of the 44 ponzi companies in Odisha which came under the scanner of CBI and ED following an order of the Supreme Court to probe their finances and transactions.

ED registered a case against it in 2014.