ED: Rajesh Exports probe revealed 3k crore trade set-offs | India News

NEW DELHI: A day after it searched nine premises of Rajesh Exports Ltd, ED said Wednesday it has found suspicious foreign transactions of Rs 3,000 crore through UAE, could not find any evidence of a Rs 1,035 crore investment it claimed to have made in African mines, and found that the MD of the company, which reported a consolidated revenue of Rs 7.7 lakh crore, was paid Rs 17,000 as monthly salary, while its CFO had not been paid anything since 2020.ED claimed to have found evidence of suspicious block trade, including over Rs 600 crore siphoned out of India through share manipulation using NRI ‘benamidars’.Investigation revealed opaque netting and set-offs of large foreign trade receivables against foreign trade payables of around Rs 3,000 crore”, ED said. On the “investment” in African mines, it said, “Rajesh Exports Ltd failed to produce documentation in respect of its foreign transactions, including its imports, exports, overseas investments, and settlement of foreign trade receivables and payables, thereby rendering verification of the genuineness of such transactions almost impossible.” The agency carried out physical verification of stock during searches and found “a difference of 40% between the stock recorded in factory registers and the actual physical stock found on the premises”. ED said the company was engaged in “suspicious block trades in REL scrip executed by certain individuals…”