Economic Offences Wing: ‘Cox & Kings set up 15 fake cos to dress up books, divert funds’

An investigation by the Economic Offences Wing (EOW) of Mumbai police has discovered that as early as 2010, Cox & Kings Ltd allegedly created 15 pretend journey agent corporations, opened financial institution accounts for every, secured PAN numbers and bought tickets to them solely on paper for 2 years to cover the poor financials of Cox & Kings and its subsidiaries.
It has discovered that these 15 pretend clients had been used to rotate funds between Cox & Kings and its subsidiary Ezeego One Travels and Tours Pvt Ltd and to cut back the pending dues of Ezeego, a loss-making entity, within the books of Cox & Kings. In 2010, Cox & Kings raised Rs 300 crore by means of international depository receipts on the London Stock Exchange.
In April 2020, The Indian Express, in a sequence of tales, reported how a forensic audit discovered that the journey firm undertook associated social gathering transactions price Rs 21,000 crore over 4 years (2015-2019) to siphon off funds. It additionally discovered that Cox & Kings had falsified data, booked gross sales price Rs 9,000 crore to over 160 clients who’re bogus or don’t exist and inflated financial institution balances.
The newest findings of the EOW type a part of a report submitted by the company in courtroom for closure of a case filed by the promoter of Cox & Kings, Peter Kerkar, towards the corporate’s chief monetary officer Anil Khandelwal, a number of workers, and officers of banks that lent to Cox & Kings. Both Kerkar and Khandelwal are at the moment behind bars in reference to a cash laundering case the Enforcement Directorate (ED) is investigating.
“We are yet to receive the entire copy of the report along with the findings of the EOW investigation. What has been given so far is a letter to our client informing the closure of the case. Once we get all the documents we will file a protest petition against the EOW report,” stated Kerkar’s legal professionals Dharmesh Joshi and Parag Joshi from T. D. Joshi & Associates.
The EOW, in its investigation report, stated {that a} forensic audit ordered by it on Cox & Kings has discovered that between 2013 and 2019, not less than Rs 5,911.32 crore has been transferred from the journey agency to corporations the place Peter Kerkar has “direct interest”.
The company alleged that Cox & Kings took company bank cards within the title of 5 of its workers and used it to purchase tickets from its subsidiary Ezeego. This cash obtained by Ezeego from the sale of tickets to Cox & Kings was then returned to the latter towards previous dues. Cox & Kings subsequently used the cash to clear the payments of the company bank cards that had been used to purchase tickets.

The probe report stated that in March 2019, one such Cox & Kings bank card issued by IndusInd Bank was “swiped at Ezeego which turned the money over to Cox & Kings with Cox & Kings reimbursing about Rs 525 crore to IndusInd Bank”.
“As a result the Cox & Kings balance sheet of 2018-19 showed a substantial bank balance and IndusInd had the same amount of deposits. Immediately thereafter on April 2, 2019, the bank diverted this amount to repayment of their limit,” stated the EOW report.
The company has alleged that promoters Peter Kerkar and Urrshila Kerkar had been conscious of the manipulation of those accounts. Cox and Kings owes Rs 5,500 crore to banks and monetary establishments. The firm was despatched to chapter courtroom in October 2019 after it defaulted on funds.