Ludhiana: In a startling revelation, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) has claimed that a prominent business family of Ludhiana and its companies have allegedly been involved in mega financial transactions in Switzerland along with acquiring assets worth several hundred crores in that country in violation of the Foreign Exchange Management Act (FEMA). On the other hand, the companies owned by the family in Ludhiana and other places in India have availed loans worth more than Rs 400 crore from Indian banks and insolvency proceedings have been filed against these companies by the lending banks with the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT). ED officially shared these developments in a statement issued by its headquarters late on Friday evening. The agency also disclosed that the Soin family had acquired assets in Cyprus as well and look-out circulars (LOC) have been issued against some of the members of the family. ED had raided properties linked to Soin family of Ludhiana recently. The agency said, “ED has conducted search operations on March 30 in Punjab and Himachal Pradesh for investigating the matter of, prima facie, violation of the provisions of Section 4 of the Foreign Exchange Management Act (FEMA), by persons for acquiring, holding, owning, possessing and transferring foreign exchange, foreign security or any immovable properties situated outside India. In total, seven premises were searched.” “During the search, many incriminating documents in the form of loose papers and property documents revealing financial transactions between the persons resident in India/the business entities owned/controlled by them and the various business entities in India and Switzerland were recovered and seized. Investigation was initiated based on a reference stating that LoCs had been issued against Dinesh Soin, Abhishek Soin and others of Saber Papers Limited, Ludhiana (SPL). Enquiries were conducted by ED, which revealed that Dinesh Soin, Abhishek Soin and other members of the Soin family were the shareholders, directors of SPL and Saber Paper Boards Private Limited, Ludhiana (SPBPL)”The ED further said, “Further inquiry confirmed that certain wholly-owned subsidiary and joint venture entities were incorporated in Cyprus and Switzerland by the said persons and mandatory reporting required to be filed as per the FEMA provisions, had not been made for considerable number of years. Further, enquiries conducted revealed that SPL and SPBPL, said Dinesh Soin and Abhishek Soin had invested Rs 9.7 crore in various entities in foreign jurisdiction and later, had apportioned the assets and liabilities among those entities which revealed that more that Rs 120 crore worth of assets had accreted in the name of those companies in Switzerland. The Soins had remitted through banking channels only an amount of Rs 9.7 crore, reinforcing the suspicions that funds transferred from India through other than banking channels, had been infused in those entities. Intelligence was also gathered that bank loans worth more than Rs 400 crore had been availed by the SPL and SPBPL for which insolvency proceedings was initiated by the lending banks before the NCLT. Further investigation in the case is under progress.”