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Gurgaon police have booked two directors of a company, including a Chinese national, for their alleged involvement in providing ‘dummy’ directors to Chinese shell companies.
The FIR, on the complaint of Nitin Phartyal, deputy director, Ministry of Corporate Affairs (MCA), was registered Thursday night after a team of officers from the Ministry conducted a search and seizure inquiry at the office of a firm on MG Road in Gurgaon. Police said the company is primarily operated by the directors.
The FIR stated that during the course of inquiries (search and seizure), officials had come across the company against which incriminating evidence has been found allegedly showing its involvement and that of its officials in incorporating fake companies through fraudulent means.
“The modus operandi of the said directors is by facilitating/ helping… foreign nationals in incorporating companies in India. For that, they are conniving and joining hands with Indian directors to open the company on behalf of foreign directors. The subject company is providing all logistics for opening the company, including certifying documents, which are required for filing by the company. Besides incorporating the company, it is also appointing directors of Indian origin and subsequently, taking their resignations (and) appointing… foreign nationals, who ultimately are the sole beneficiary of the money routing, which is being done with the help of chartered accountants and Indian directors,” claimed the FIR.
It added that Indian directors who were appointed have given statements before other enforcement agencies that they were taking instructions from foreign directors, and they received an amount for holding the ‘dummy’ post.
The FIR said the documents submitted by the company and the directors were either wrong or forged or based on falsified addresses, and an independent inquiry under section 206 (4) of the Companies Act, 2013, has also been ordered by the MCA against the company and its directors.
“It appears that the modus operandi has been adopted just to bypass the robust system of built-in checks in MCA before the incorporation of any company by foreign nationals. This modus operandi reveals that the professional chartered accountant who incorporated the company was having mens rea to bypass the robust system of incorporation and to allow the Chinese nationals to become the directors,” said the FIR.
The complainant added in the FIR that during search and seizure operation at the firm’s office, “hundreds of seals and stamps of companies/clients were found”. It added that evidence showed that the company “has been working at the behest of nationals from China for onboarding Indian nationals as dummy directors in Indian companies”.
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A police officer, requesting anonymity, said, “No arrests have been made so far. We have given a notice to the company. A probe is ongoing in the matter.” Police said the FIR is under IPC sections 406 (criminal breach of trust), 420 (cheating), 477-A (falsification of accounts), 120-B (criminal conspiracy), Section 66 D of the Information Technology Act, and Section 447 of the Companies Act.
Gurgaon police commissioner Kala Ramachandran said an SIT headed by DCP South has been formed to probe the case.
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