The Directorate of Enforcement (ED), Chennai Zonal Office, has provisionally attached movable and immovable properties in various places across Tamil Nadu, valued at ₹121.80 crore, in the case pertaining to Neomax Properties Private Ltd. and its group companies, under the provisions of Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), 2002.
The group companies are: Garlando Properties Private Ltd., Transco Properties Private Ltd., Tridas Properties Private Ltd., Glowmax Properties Private Ltd.; its directors/shareholders are: Kamalakannan, Balasubramanian, Veerasakthi, Charles, and others. The market value of the attached properties is around ₹600 crore, the ED said.
This follows the ED’s provisional attachment of properties valued at ₹117 crore on December 15, 2023, which has been confirmed by the PMLA Adjudicating Authority; the market value of those properties was ₹207 crore.
The ED initiated the investigation based on an FIR registered by the Economic Offences Wing (EOW), Madurai, against Neomax Properties and its group companies. They were accused of cheating several investors into depositing lakhs of money in various projects (real estate plot development) by promising high returns with up to 12% to 30% interest, and not giving the promised returns/plots.
The investigation revealed that under the aegis of ‘Neomax Group’, they collected a huge amount of money, mostly in the form of cash, from thousands of investors, and diverted these funds to shell entities and group companies engaged in services like hotels and resorts, multi-speciality hospitals, pharma distribution, construction, retail business, departmental stores, aerospace services (helicopter/charter), and other businesses. Neomax Group owes around ₹8,000 crore, including the promised returns to the depositors/investors.
Furthermore, they avoided repayment and instead forced/coaxed the depositors into redepositing their maturity amount. Further investigation is under progress, said the ED.
Published – April 18, 2025 05:06 pm IST
