884 companies under scanner in money laundering cases - Govt

As many as 884 companies are under the scanner in various money laundering cases and assets worth Rs 5,000 crore have been attached following probes initiated as per the PMLA, Union Minister P P Chaudhary said.

However, he said that not a single company has been deregistered on the charges of money laundering by the government.

As per the inputs supplied by the Finance Ministry, "884 companies are under investigation in various money laundering cases," the Minister of State for Corporate Affairs said in a written reply to Rajya Sabha.

He further noted that investigation against these companies has resulted in attachment of assets worth Rs 5,066.3 crore and filing of a total of 58 prosecution cases under Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).

Further, over 2.26 lakh companies have been struck off for remaining inactive for a period of two years or more as on December 2017.

Besides, more than 3 lakh persons have been disqualified for holding the post of director at registered companies for failing to comply with regulatory requirements. Of these directors, over 2 lakh disqualified directors were on the board of deregistered companies.

"...3,09,619 directors were disqualified ...for non filing of financial statements or annual returns for a continuous period of immediately preceding three financial years (2013-14, 2014-14 and 2015-16)," Corporate Affairs Minsiter Arun Jaitley said in a separate reply to Lok Sabha.

Further, he said that no director on the board of government companies was disqualified for lapse in the filing financial statements or annual returns in respect of such firms.

Also, Jaitley said that no separate database is being implemented with respect to bureaucrats and politicians on board of companies. #casansaar (Source - PTI, Times of India)