Pearls Group has invested in Australia: CBI

Investigations by the CBI against promoter of Pearls Group — Nirmal Singh Bhangoo — have revealed that firms linked to him allegedly invested around `670 crore in Australia. The agency will soon send judicial request to Australia to seek details of Pearls Group’s activities there.

Sources said Bhangoo was allegedly running real estate business — portable housing projects — in the name of his relatives in Australia and also reportedly owned a hotel on Gold Coast. Sources further said the agency is probing business dealings of Bhangoo through which public money might have been diverted. It is also learnt that the suspected firm allegedly invested huge amount in Dubai.

“Directors of Pearls Group companies allegedly collected funds from people and dishonestly diverted funds to Australia”, sources in the CBI said.

The agency will soon be sending Letters Rogatory to Australia seeking information about his business interests and companies suspected to be working with him. The CBI is also preparing to seek assistance from the UAE authorities in getting details about Bhangoo’s alleged investments in Dubai, sources said.

Letters Rogatory is a document issued by a court of a sovereign country to a court in another nation seeking legal assistance in probing a crime. They said, if needed, LRs will also be sent to Dubai in this connection as it is investigating the diversion of some funds there.

During the probe in the last two years, CBI has found 1,300 bank accounts of the suspect company, its directors, and associated firms, sources said, adding the agency has frozen assets (mostly Fixed Deposit receipts) to the tune of Rs 280 crore and an additional Rs 108 crore has been deposited with the Delhi High Court. They said the agency has managed to seize 20,000 documents related to properties whose purchase value was estimated at Rs 5,000 crore.

Bhangoo, CMD of Pearls Golden Forest Ltd (PGF) and ex-Chairman of Pearls Australasia Pty Limited, along with Sukhdev Singh, MD and Promoter-Director of Pearls Agrotech Corporation Ltd (PACL), Gurmeet Singh, Executive Director (Finance) and Subrata Bhattacharya, ED in the PGF/PACL were arrested by CBI in connection with the scam.