PNB scam: Nirav Modi's wife Ami named in ED chargesheet

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has named economic offender Nirav Modi's wife Ami Modi in a chargesheet in connection with its ongoing investigation into over Rs 13,500-crore Punjab National Bank (PNB) loan fraud case, sources said.

Nirav Modi (Source: PTI)

  New Delhi: The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has named economic offender diamantaire Nirav Modi's wife Ami Modi in a chargesheet in connection with its ongoing investigation into over Rs 13,500-crore Punjab National Bank (PNB) loan fraud case, sources said. The agency filed the chargeseet in a special Mumbai court charging Ami, a US national, for being the beneficiary of alleged purchase of two apartments at Central Park in New York using $30 million laundered money, which her husband had obtained fraudulently from PNB through Letters of Undertaking (LoU) and Foreign Letters of Credit (FLCsa). The chargesheet was filed on February 28, he said. It is alleged that the amount was routed through Ami's HSBC Bank accounts traced by the agency, according to reports. These apartments are part of Nirav Modi's worth Rs 637 crore foreign properties the ED had seized in October last year. According to agency officials, the apartments were purchased in the name of The Ithaca Trust. One of the properties in Central Park South, New York, was in the name of Central Park Real Estate LLC, a Firestar Group company. In 2018, it was transferred to the Trust. The alleged beneficiary of The Ithaca Trust is Ami and her children and the settler of the said trust was Nirav Modi's sister Purvi Modi, a Belgian national. The move is seen as a step to tighten grip around Nirav Modi, who has now been seen in London where he is believed to be residing for several months now.