The company has been facing CBI probe for its failure to refund Rs 49,000 crore to public who had invested in the company's collective investment scheme (CIS) that was deemed illegal by market regulator SEBI here.
The Supreme Court appointed Justice R M Lodha panel, assigned to sale the assets of Pearls Agrotech Corporation Ltd (PACL) and its promoters in the ponzi scam, has made a request to the Australian authorities to examine the documents pertaining to group's properties there including Sheraton Mirage Resort (Sheraton) on the Gold Coast.
The company has been facing CBI probe for its failure to refund Rs 49,000 crore to public who had invested in the company's collective investment scheme (CIS) that was deemed illegal by market regulator SEBI here.
Filing an application recently, the Security and Exchange Board of India (SEBI), has informed the Supreme Court that the committee has received a positive response from the Australian Federal Police Criminal Assets Confiscation Task Force and the Australian Government Attorney General's Department, Canberra.
" The Australian Federal Police (AFP) has conveyed to the Committee the requirement for a formal Mutual Assistance Request (MAR) to be made from a Central Authority in India to a Central Authority in Australia…", the market regulator said.
It sought a direction to the Centre for issuance of MAR as the same would be issued by the International Cooperation Division, Ministry of Home Affairs to prepare in consultation with the Committee and forward to the concerned Central Authority in Australia.
It was also sought an order directing the concerned Sub Registrars/ Revenue Authorities not to register any sale or transfer of any such property by PACL Ltd. or its Directors.
Nirmal Singh Bhangoo, founder of PACL had purchased the Sheraton Mirage on the Gold Coast in 2009.
According to a source in SEBI, Bhangoo and several of his family members teamed up with Gold Coast property developers Paul Brinsmead and Peter Madrers. The two Australians had operated the company Resort Corp, which developed large tracts of coastal land in the Tweed Shire in northern NSW before its group of 14 companies collapsed in March 2009, owing about $300 million, it said.
Justice Lodha Committee, which has submitted an interim report to the Apex Court, so far received from the CBI 22,395 documents pertaining to properties of PACL Ltd. It has got a list of more than 20,000 properties but details regarding the possession are yet to be received from PACL Ltd.
The Committee has found that about 100 properties are in the possession of 3rd parties or have been sold by various authorities.
According to the probe agency the money was allegedly collected by Bhangoo -managed group through its two companies — PACL and Pearls Golden Forest Limited - in ponzi schemes under the garb of sale and development of agricultural land.
The Pearls Group chairman-cum-managing and its three other directors were arrested on January 8, after two years of CBI probe ordered by the Supreme Court, in connection with alleged swindling of Rs 45,000 crore.
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