By Neil Terrance Haslam & Vikram Kilpady
Raj Kundra, the high-flying NRI businessman and husband of Bollywood actor Shilpa Shetty, has been arrested by Mumbai Police on Monday, July 19, in connection with an adult film/pornography racket. The case has left many big Bollywood stars stunned in silence while a few, including Kangana Ranaut, have come out in support of Kundra.
This is the first time Kundra has been arrested though he has been frequently summoned by the Enforcement Directorate for questioning and to explain his and his companies’ ties with companies linked to underworld don Dawood Ibrahim, who is in exile in Karachi, Pakistan. The link is via Bastian Hospitality where Raj Kundra was a director along with Ranjeet Bindra, who is a known aide of Dawood henchman Iqbal Mirchi. Kundra and his wife also have a company, Essential Hospitality, which took loans from RKW Developers which has Bindra on the board.
Bindra is said to have, according to the ED, brokered deals between Mirchi and Sunblink Real Estate Private Limited, a company registered on June 15, 2009 at Mumbai, and is owned by Dewan Housing Finance Corporation Ltd (DHFL) founder Dheeraj Wadhawan’s brother-in-law. Post this deal, being a Dawood front, Sunblink is linked to terror funding. Though Sunblink is a loss-making company, it has been receiving loans and routing the money out to several entities.
In the image below, incoming long term and short term loans are marked in yellow, none of these are showing up under charges; short term loans and advances are outgoing loans. Why should Sunblink be lending money when it cannot provide loans as it’s not a non-banking finance company? Also, how can a loss-making company lend money?
All the money into Sunblink are all loans provided by DHFL.
Sunblink Real Estate Private Limited has also made investments in the following companies, which is evident from their Balance Sheet for 2015-16. Once again, the company is in violation of the law as it’s a loss-making company and yet is making investments.
Among the directors of Sunblink Real Estate Private Limited registered with the Ministry of Corporate Affairs (MCA) are: Sunny Suresh Bathija with DIN (Director identification number) 02877930; Mehul Anil Bavishi with DIN 03207296 and Amit Ramesh Sawhney with DIN 02622339. The three persons named above are also directors in other companies, including Cloud Nine Realtors Private Limited.
Cloud Nine Realtors Private Limited
Once again, a company, which has been making losses for the past several years, has received hefty loans from DHFL and routed them out as long term & short-term loans, which are again in violation of the law and has also received Rs 405 crore from four other similar loss-making companies.
Incoming investments in the form of Preferential shares,
Further, Cloud Nine Realtors Private Limited received an astronomical amount as a loan from Union Bank of India on 31-10-2011. See the zeros under the head amount below, yes, Rs 22591 crore.
Mehul Anil Bavishi, who is a director with both Sunblink and Cloud Nine, is also a director of Skill Realtors Private Limited.
Skill Realtors Private Limited
Continuing with the trend, Skill Realtors Private Limited is another loss-making company for the past several years. But if you look at data for 2015-16-17 & 18, we see that reserves and surplus are no longer in the negative. This is merely because this loss-making company has received loans, both short term and long term, and once again, just like the other two above, routed the funds out by providing loans.
But here the most surprising phenomena is that this company has also received investments in the form of preferential shares at a premium of Rs 9,990 per equity share. The investments are from Kundra and Shilpa Shetty run Essential Hospitality.
In the data given below, each and every company is bogus along with all the entry providers.
List of Share Holders:
The company also made investments in below mentioned companies, one of which, Wadhawan Holding Private Limited, shows that it’s a clear-cut example of Round-Tripping.
This company has also provided loans to Sunblink Private Limited as per its Balance Sheet 2015-16
Essential Hospitality Private Limited, which invested in Skill Realtors Private Limited, is another loss-making company, which has received huge amount in the form of loans from DHFL and once again has routed money out in the form of long-term and short-term loans.
Essential Hospitality Private Limited has RKW Developers owning 99.97% of the company, which is owned by the Wadhawans and is once again in violation of the law.
But continuing with the shady dealings, what is shocking is that the loss-making company has received Rs 100 crore from L&T FinCorp Limited in 2016 in the form of debentures.
This loss-making company also received investments worth Rs 17 crore from Raj Kundra, whose actual name is Ripu Sudan Kundra.
If this is not enough, Essential Hospitality also received Rs 110 crore from Indiabulls Housing Finance, which is currently in the news for its own shady dealings.
Essential Hospitality Private Limited in its Balance Sheet 2012-13 has mentioned that it granted loans to the parties below, please note that these companies are also loss-making companies.
Both the Kundras were directors of the company and only after all the misdeeds did they resign from their posts on July 26, 2013. However, in 2014, the shares were transferred to RKW, Balance Sheet 2013-14.
The company has made investments in several companies (see below) which are not only loss-making but also double back to Dewan House (DHFL), details can be found in 2012-13 Balance Sheet,
Company is showing bogus entries in the companies listed below ,Balance Sheet 2012-13.
Sunblink Real Estate Private Limited invested money in three companies, one of the company which we investigated was Rock Builders and Developers Private Limited at an astronomical premium of Rs 34,950 per equity share and a face value of Rs 50.
Rock Builders and Developers is another pass-through entity.
Rock Builder also invested bogus capital in other bogus DHFL loss-making companies, but that’s not all, Rock Builders also invested money back into Sunblink, and Sunblink concealed this.
Astonishingly, three Essar Group companies have also made investments via shares at large premium rate of Rs 34,950 per equity and a face value of Rs 50, all the rest of the companies are DHFL entities. So why is Essar Group investing in DHFL’s bogus loss-making companies?
Though Kundra might not be the money laundering mastermind, he comes across as an eager tool. It falls upon the central government to examine this and bring the guilty to book. Such action will ensure people don’t lose their hard-earned money and savings, since several banks that went bust have been guilty of investing money without an iota of due diligence. But that is another story.