New Delhi, Apr 17 (PTI) The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Thursday said it has taken possession of 60 rooms and a vacant piece of land of a resort, worth Rs 30 crore, in Tamil Nadu’s Rameswaram town as part of a money-laundering probe against its promoters.

The property belongs to Seven Hills Pamban Island Resort and the action was taken in the case against T M Traders and K K Traders (TP Global FX), the federal agency said in a statement.

The 60 rooms and the vacant land, worth a total of Rs 30 crore, were attached by the ED earlier.

The case stems from an FIR lodged by the Kolkata Police against the two companies.

A “sophisticated deception” was orchestrated by individuals linked to these companies named Prasenjit Das, Tushar Patel and Shailesh Kumar Pandey by utilising numerous “dummy” firms to entice investors into “fraudulent” schemes, promising high returns on foreign exchange trading investments through TP Global FX, according to the ED.

The directors and promoters of another company named IX Global — Viraj Suhas Patil and Joseph Martinez — “actively promoted” TP Global FX as their preferred brokers, the agency said, adding that the members and users of IX Global employed TP Global FX’s brokerage services for their forex (foreign exchange) trading activities.

Funds collected from investors were “diverted” to procure personal assets in the name of Patel and his associates. This was accomplished through complex methods, including funnelling money through “dummy” accounts and engaging the services of Full Fledged Money Changers (FFMCs), the ED said.

The agency’s probe found that TP Global FX was neither registered with the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) nor did it have any authorisation from the banking regulator for forex trading.

Das, Pandey and Patil have been arrested by the ED, which has filed two chargesheets in the case. PTI NES RC