- Tuesday, April 22, 2025
The agency has seized 17 residential and commercial properties belonging to various companies and individuals, including the Goyals, including Naresh, his wife Anita Goyal and son Nivaan.
By: Shubham Ghosh
INDIA’S Enforcement Directorate (ED), an economic intelligence agency under the country’s finance ministry, on Wednesday (1) attached properties worth Rs 538.05 crore (£53.2 million) linked to the now defunct Jet Airways and the family of its founder Naresh Goyal who is currently in jail, under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), 2002.
The agency has seized 17 residential and commercial properties belonging to various companies and individuals, including the Goyals, including Naresh, his wife Anita Goyal and son Nivaan. These properties are located in India, the UAE and the UK.
“The attached properties include 17 residential flats/bungalows and commercial premises in the name of various companies and persons viz. M/s Jetair Private Limited, M/s Jet Enterprises Private Limited, founder Chairman of M/s Jet Airways (India) Limited (JIL) Naresh Goyal, his wife Mrs Anita Goyal and son Nivaan Goyal situated in London, Dubai and various States of India,” the ED said in a release.
ED has provisionally attached properties worth Rs 538.05 Crore under the provisions of PMLA, 2002 in the money laundering investigation against M/s Jet Airways (India) Limited (JIL). The attached properties include 17 residential flats/bungalows and commercial premises in the… pic.twitter.com/jJAOTaYG3o
— ED (@dir_ed) November 1, 2023
The ED had initiated the money-laundering investigation based on a first-information report registered by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), India’s domestic crime investigation agency, following a written complaint by public sector Canara Bank.
The lender had accused JIL and its promoters and directors of cheating, criminal conspiracy, criminal misconduct, among others.
“Naresh Goyal implemented a massive financial fraud in which the funds of JIL were systematically diverted in the garb of irrational and inflated General Sales Agent (GSA) commissions, large unexplained payouts to various professionals and consultants, by granting of loans to JetLite Limited (100% subsidiary to acquire Air Sahara), and subsequently writing off the loans by making provisions in the balance sheets,” ED said in its statement.
“ED investigation established that GSA commissions were wrongfully paid to Jet Air Private Limited (GSA of JIL for India), Jet Airways LLC Dubai (Global GSA of JIL) and JIL wrongfully paid for the operational expenses of these GSAs. All these GSAs were beneficially owned by Naresh Goyal. Hence, the management of JIL toed the line of Naresh Goyal, and kept on paying large sums of money on regular basis despite the fact that these entities were not performing any substantial service after 2009,” it added.
The agency arrested Naresh Goyal in September under PMLA. He is currently in judicial custody and lodged in Mumbai’s Arthur Road.
It filed a charge sheet against the businessman on Tuesday (31).
