ED arrests Yes Bank co-founder Rana Kapoor in a cash laundering case

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) Wednesday arrested former chairman and co-founder of Yes Bank Ltd Rana Kapoor underneath the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA). Kapoor was arrested in a case pertaining to the alleged sanctioning of a Rs 200 crore mortgage throughout his tenure to Mack Star Marketing Pvt, an organization owned by the jailed promoters of HDIL – Rakesh and Sarang Wadhawan. The Wadhawans are accused of defrauding the Punjab and Maharashtra Co-operative (PMC) Bank of Rs 6000 crore. An area courtroom has remanded Kapoor to ED custody until January 30.
According to ED, Mack Star received a Rs 200 crore mortgage “in criminal conspiracy with Rana Kapoor” after which diverted it to HDIL which in flip used the cash to settle its loans with Yes Bank. The case towards Kapoor is predicated on the FIR filed by the Central Bureau of Investigation final yr. The ED has additionally alleged that the precise goal for sanctioning this mortgage was “to siphon off the amounts and transfer the misappropriated funds to struggling HDIL group companies and it was used to evergreen the accounts of HDIL with Yes Bank to save them from becoming an NPA”.
“The entire circulation of funds was happening within the Yes Bank system (i.e. loans disbursed by Yes Bank into Mack Star’s Yes Bank account were immediately diverted to Yes Bank accounts of HDIL group companies, which used these funds on the same day to discharge liabilities owed by these HDIL group companies to Yes Bank),” mentioned ED.

Last yr, Rana Kapoor was arrested by ED for allegedly taking kickbacks in lieu of granting loans to a number of corporations together with Dewan Housing Finance Corporation Ltd (DHFL) and Cox and Kings Ltd, which have now defaulted on repayments. Since then, Kapoor was in judicial custody. Earlier this week, the Bombay High Court rejected the bail utility of Kapoor in that case.