The Enforcement Directorate, which on May 16 in connection with a case of alleged corruption and money laundering, has told a PMLA special court in Kolkata that he created a complex web of nine companies with cross holdings to receive kickbacks.
According to the ED, its probe found that Goel received bribes from an iron ore company, a loan defaulter, through these entities and used the funds to buy property. He also forced the loan defaulter to fund his family’s travels and purchase of personal items such as goggles and dry fruits, the agency claimed.
Goel is being probed in connection with an over Rs 6,000-crore loan default by Concast Steel and Power Ltd (CSPL), promoted by Sanjay Sureka, where UCO Bank alone had an exposure of Rs 1,400 crore.
Goel’s lawyer Gautam Khazanchi did not respond to specific allegations made by ED saying the matter was sub judice.
He said he was approaching the High Court to secure bail for Goel.
“He is severely unwell. He suffers from a neuro degenerative disorder. He is 75 years old and wheelchair-bound. That is why we had to move for bail on medical grounds. But the (lower) court has not agreed to this. His ED custody is getting over on Monday. Then we will move HC,” Khazanchi said.
The ED has told the special court that Goel, while serving as the UCO Bank CMD, played a “central and influential role in the sanctioning of credit facilities to CSPL, despite the company’s dubious financial health and its promoter’s involvement in manipulation of financial statements”.
According to the ED’s submission in court, its probe has revealed the existence of a “tightly interwoven network of private limited companies” – namely R H Design India Pvt Ltd, Zhen Agencies Pvt Ltd, Falcon Vincom Pvt Ltd, FV Estates Pvt Ltd, Prime Buildtech Pvt Ltd, Hari Ram & Sons Pvt Ltd, Satya Ornapack Pvt Ltd, Hari Om Consultants Pvt Ltd and Chakresh Commosales Pvt Ltd – which are “either directly or indirectly linked to Shri Subodh Kumar Goel”.
The directors in all these companies are variously the wife, son, daughter, son-in-law or nephew of Goel, the ED has claimed.
All these companies are also intricately cross-held by three core entities: Falcon Vincom Pvt Ltd, FV Estates Pvt Ltd and Chakresh Commosales Pvt Ltd.
These three entities, in turn, are majority held by Hanuman Bhakt Family Welfare Trust, which holds 51% in Falcon Vincom, 50.5% in FV Estates, and 52% in Chakresh Commosales.
The Trust itself is privately governed and controlled by family members of Goel, the ED has claimed.
Another company, identified as I-Win Advisory Services Ltd, directly links CSPL’s Sureka and Goel.
According to ED, I-Win was owned and controlled by Sureka but was used as a conduit to transfer undue benefits to Goel’s family. In FY 2019–20, the shareholding of this company was transferred to Goel’s daughter and son-in-law with each acquiring 29.98% of the total shares of the company.
During its searches, the ED recovered a ledger from Goel’s residence. This ledger was prepared by an employee of Sureka. In this ledger, a corresponding set-off entry of Rs 5 crore is recorded around the same time in the name of “IWIN”.
This, the ED has claimed, shows that the shareholding transferred to Goel’s daughter and son was not a genuine business investment but rather a proxy transaction to settle a portion of kickbacks owed to Goel by Sureka for undue favours extended in the sanctioning of loans to CSPL.
“Funds received as bribes or commissions were routed through these entities, invested into properties or fixed assets, and later shown as legitimate income via rentals or returns – thereby completing the placement, layering, and integration stages of money laundering,” an ED official said.
According to ED, Goel, in his statement to the agency, stated he had indeed received certain petty cash benefits and personal items such as goggles at the behest of Sanjay Sureka.
“Payments were also made in the form of luxury expenses, including hotel stays, air tickets, iPhones and dry fruits, thereby further evidencing the illicit nature of benefits received,” the ED has told the court.
However, a majority of the funds routed through Goel’s companies were used to buy properties in NCR such as office space at Jasola, flats in Commonwealth Games Village, a property at Jaypee Knight Court, his own house at Panchsheel Park, a property in Sector 44, Noida, two commercial properties in Greater Noida, a warehouse in Ghaziabad, a plot in Jaipur and a land parcel at Palwal, Haryana.
The ED has also elaborated how Goel’s multi-crore property at Panchsheel Park was also received through a circuitous route as probable bribe.
According to ED, Goel’s Panchsheel Park property is registered in the name of M/s Dhanapati Retailers Pvt Ltd. The company acquired the property in FY 2013-14 for a book value of Rs 13.53 crore.
Incidentally, Sureka’s sister Rachna Poddar is one of the directors of the company while Sureka and his wife had 50% shares each in the company until FY 2017-18. Then in FY 2018-19, the company transferred all its shares to Goel’s family.
Apart from this, Goel further received alleged kickbacks in the form of unsecured loans from Sureka and the CSPL in companies associated with his family members.
For instance, Jagdish Properties, where Goel’s son and daughter-in-law are shareholders, received unsecured loans totalling over Rs 2 crore from companies beneficially owned by Sanjay Sureka.
Similarly, Hari Om Consultants received Rs 2.65 crore in FY 2015-16 from Concast Engineering Pvt Ltd, another company of Sureka, which ballooned to over Rs 3.35 crore by FY 2019-20.
An ED official said until now the agency has calculated purely the book value of assets created by Goel to be around Rs 75 crore. “Their market value is estimated to be close to Rs 200 crore because the accused have undervalued properties in documents. It is suspected that Sureka had also become an agent for Goel and was laundering kickbacks from other businessmen as well for him,” the official said.
