Prima facie material to proceed against Raj Kundra for money-laundering: Court

The ED had claimed that Kundra and his actor wife Shilpa Shetty entered into a ‘sale transaction' of five flats in Juhu without 'any change in ownership'. (File photo)

There is prima facie material to proceed against businessman Raj Kundra in the Bitcoin Ponzi scheme case on the charges of money-laundering, said a special court on Monday, a detailed order of which was made available on Wednesday.

In the order taking cognisance of the supplementary chargesheet filed against Kundra, the court issued notices against him and Rajesh Satija, directing them to appear before it on January 19.

The court noted that the Enforcement Directorate (ED) has alleged that Kundra received proceeds of crime in the form of 285 bitcoins, valued at more than Rs 150 crore, and continued to remain in possession of the same. “He has not only acquired/received the proceeds of crime from the criminal activities, but in order to layer the transactions, so as to give colour of genuine transaction, he has done sale transaction with his wife at a rate which is far below market rate to disguise the origin of such funds obtained by commission of criminal activities for the purpose of concealing or disguising the illegal origin of the said funds…,”  the ED told court.

“The ED has made out a prima-facie case to take cognizance and to proceed against accused Nos.17 and 18 (Kundra and Satija) for the offence under Section 3 punishable under Section 4 of the PMLA and to issue process against them,” said special judge R B Rote. Satija, the agency alleges, had received Rs 55 crore from the main accused, Amit Bhardwaj.

In its supplementary chargesheet filed in September, the ED had claimed that Kundra and his actor wife Shilpa Shetty entered into a ‘sale transaction’ of five flats in Juhu without ‘any change in ownership’ at a rate ‘far below market rate’, knowing that the property was liable for attachment. The ED claimed that of the Rs 38 crore paid by Shetty to Kundra in lieu of purchasing the flats in a building in Juhu, Rs 24.9 crore was transferred into a joint account in the name of the couple. Kundra has denied these allegations.

The ED’s case relates to an FIR filed against Amit Bhardwaj, promoter and founder of gainbitcoin.com, alleging that he had promised high returns on investments in mining crypto currency, but had duped investors. The ED claims links between Kundra and Bhardwaj, from whom the businessman allegedly took the bitcoins.