The property of their company ‘Southern Agrifuran Industries Limited’ has also been confiscated. The main allegation against the former chairman and his associate is that they transferred part of the TMB shares to someone abroad without their knowledge.
The ED alleged that when Maran was the chairman of TMB in 2007, he and his associates took about 23% shares of TMB Bank from Indian shareholders and wrongfully transferred them to someone else abroad.
According to the ED, MGM Maran received around Rs 291 crore in assets from abroad during his tenure as chairman. The source of that investment is not known.
The entire process was carried out without the approval of the Reserve Bank of India which is highly suspicious, the investigating agency said.
After the incident came to light, Maran renounced his Indian citizenship and took Cypriot citizenship.
Another bank scam in the country! This time again the accused is the bank’s top executive!—symbolic image.
According to the ED, the former chairman of TMB Bank started moving all his assets abroad to escape Indian law. He used a company as a shield to launder this money. That company is ‘Southern Agrifuran Industries Limited’.
But finally when AD Bank and Axis Bank filed a complaint about the incident, the Central Crime Branch of the Chennai Police filed an FIR.
ED then took over the case from them. The ED registered the case under the ‘Prevention of Money Laundering Act’ of 2002.
But the ED alleges that the company tried hard to block the progress of the investigation. They even filed a case in the Madras High Court in October 2022 and obtained an interim stay on the ED’s investigation.
The ED then filed a counter affidavit explaining the entire case in detail before the court.
Finally on December 19, the Madras High Court canceled the stay and ordered an investigation against the accused, the ED said.