New Delhi, Jan 17 (IANS): The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Friday attached properties worth Rs 9.50 crore of a Mumbai based businessman Abdul Karim Jaka in a case of money laundering in a bogus import case involving another businessman Afroz Mohamed Hasanfatta and others, said an official.

The properties were attached under sections of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), 2002.

The official said the attached properties included immovable properties namely ‘Rasool Manzil', a Housing complex including its land located at Mumbai, two flats (each measuring 480 sq ft.) located in Mumbai and a plot of land measuring 11234 sq metres located in Raigad district of Maharashtra.

The ED had registered a case of money laundering on the basis of the FIR registered by the Crime Branch in Surat against R.A. Distributors Pvt. Ltd and others for illegal outward remittances of foreign exchange on the basis of bogus import documents like fake bills of entry submitted to ICICI Bank, Surat.

"During the probe it was found that nine companies having accounts in ICICI Bank's Surat branch had remitted huge amounts of money on the basis of forged bills of entry to three companies in UAE and 15 companies in Hong Kong," the official said.

He said that the main source of credits in these accounts are from entities -- Vandana and Co., Natural Trading Co., Maruti Trading, having accounts in Axis Bank apart from around 469 other entities.

He pointed out that the entities having accounts in Axis Bank received funds through various cheque discounters and a web of 2,700 companies.

He said during the probe it was revealed that Afroz Mohamed Hasanfatta, Madanlal Jain, Bilal Haroon Gilani, Jayesh Desai, Rakesh Kothari were involved in creating these shell companies using dummy persons as directors or partners.

"It was also revealed that Hasanfatta illegally routed earned commission in fraudulent transactions of foreign remittances in the guise of imports to the bank account of Abdul Karim Jaka, a Mumbai-based businessman dealing in real estate and ship-braking business, to the tune of Rs 9.5 crores who in turn placed the same in his group companies," he said.

The ED had earlier arrested Hasanfatta, Jain, Shah, Kothari and Desai and attached their properties totalling Rs 17.15 crore.