The Directorate of Enforcement (ED), Kochi Zonal Office, provisionally attached assets worth ₹1.56 crore (approximately) belonging to M/s Samson and Sons Builders and Developers Pvt. Ltd., Trivandrum, and related persons on Tuesday (November 26) in connection with a money laundering investigation conducted under PMLA, 2002.
The investigation pertains to allegations of cheating and misappropriation of funds by the company and its directors, Jacob Samson, John Jacob, Samuel Jacob, and Dhanya Mary Varghese, under the guise of offering residential flats to homebuyers in Kerala.
The ED initiated an investigation based on FIRs registered by Peroorkada police station, alleging that the accused company and its directors collected substantial amounts from multiple homebuyers with false promises of delivering flats, which were never handed over. The accused misappropriated the funds collected from the homebuyers for personal gains and did not use them to complete the projects as promised.
The ED investigation revealed that the funds collected were neither used for the construction of promised flats nor refunded to the buyers, causing significant financial losses to the innocent investors. The proceeds of crime were received into the bank accounts of M/s Samson and Sons Builders and Developers Pvt. Ltd and the accounts of its directors and was utilised to acquire movable and immovable properties. Some of these properties were transferred and parked with third parties to conceal them from the investigation agencies.
A total of 13 properties including 12 parcels of land as well as one residential flat belonging to the accused located at Pattom and Karakulam have been provisionally attached by the ED as part of the investigation. The total value of the properties attached amounts to ₹1.56 crore (approximately).
Further investigation is under progress.
Published – November 30, 2024 08:12 am IST
