ED Chargesheet Reveals Wadhawan Brothers’ ₹34,615 Crore Scam At DHFL With 2.6 Lakh Fake Home Loans And 225 Entities
Mumbai: Dheeraj and Kapil Wadhawan of the erstwhile scam-riddled Dewan Housing Finance Ltd (DHFL) began diverting funds from a consortium of banks to 225 of their entities way back in 2005-06. This has been revealed in the chargesheet filed recently by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) against the Wadhawans and 15 others for money laundering to the tune of Rs34,615 crore.
The ED has claimed that the duo had devised a modus operandi to divert funds through the RKW Group of companies, which were associated with real estate projects.
The probe has revealed that whenever Wadhawans needed the funds, the RKW staff would contact DHFL’s credit group with a one-page proposal, or sometimes just an email mentioning the firm which needed the fund and the amount. The agency claimed that Kapil Wadhawan would approve the said requirement immediately in most of the cases.
From 2007-08, the fund diversion was frequent and in large amounts. When manual entries became difficult, they devised a programme by the name FOXPRO at DHFL’s Bandra branch. The programme broke the big amount of loan into small housing loans and diverted it in the name of old customers whose data was stored in the system.
As per the ED, the two fraudulently diverted approximately Rs11,569 crore from DHFL by falsifying books of accounts and by inflating their retail/home loan books to their 87 controlled entities in the name of 2.60 lakh fake/ non-existent persons as retail/ home loan from 2006-17.
The ED has claimed that the principal amount, as reflected in the Bandra branch books, had also accrued interest, and was beginning to create problems. Hence, DHFL on the advice of their legal consultant Ajay Vazirani, who is also an accused in the case, decided to merge these entities. It is claimed that DHFL had disbursed loan to the tune of Rs7,009 crore, which was used by 81 entities to clear their dues and exit from the Bandra books.
At the end of 2018, the Bandra books only had 30 entities left, with a total outstanding of Rs9.319.88 crore. These entities were also by the end of 2019 merged into three entities.
The ED has claimed that the Wadhawans received support from their auditors in this process. The audit carried out by KPMG claimed that DHFL from April 2015 to December 2018, had disbursed loans to the tune of Rs24,595 crore to 65 entities with minimal operations which were interrelated to the Wadhawan group. Out of these loans, Rs11,909 crore remained outstanding by the end of March 2019.
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