₹16,000-Crore Foreign Remittance & Hawala Case: Mumbai PMLA Court Sends Jitendra Pandey To ED Custody Till June 29

Mumbai: A special PMLA court has remanded Malad-based businessman Jitendra Pandey alias Sanjay Singh, arrested in connection with a ₹16,000-crore foreign remittance case, to the Enforcement Directorate (ED) custody till June 29.

Pandey is suspected to have earned a commission income of 80 crore to ₹130 crore through foreign remittance. He was arrested by the ED on Tuesday morning for allegedly remitting funds to the tune of ₹7,358 crore out of ₹16,000 crore through 12 bank accounts opened by him in the name of dummy companies, which were beneficially owned and controlled by him.

ED prosecutor Arvind Aghav has claimed that Pandey is the mastermind of an international hawala nexus. He is said to have set up numerous dummy private limited companies, partnership firms and accounts across multiple banks. As per the agency, Pandey used these channels to send “illegal” remittances of approx ₹7,358 crore to entities in Hong Kong, Singapore and Thailand, solely under the guise of freight charges and using forged documents.

The ED’s money laundering probe originated from a case registered at the Shrinagar police station in Thane in connection with cyber fraud. During the investigation, the money trail led to the recovery of multiple ledgers containing details of numerous accounts showing transactions of over ₹16,000 crore. The police also found 97 ‘suspicious’ partnership agreements and details of 260 accounts.

Pandey, in his statements, revealed that he learned the intricacies of the illicit outward remittances via dummy companies from his previous employment in a similar setup and in 2020, he started his own business. The ED has alleged that the funds earned through this business was used by Pandey to acquire immovable properties; several of which he is said to have sold soon after the Thane police lodged a case. He is said to have been suspended from the Standard Chartered bank in 2016.

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