ED registered maximum money laundering cases during 2021-22 fiscal: Govt

During the fiscal years between 2012-13 to 2021-22, ED filed a total of 3,985 criminal complaints under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) and 24,893 under the civil law of FEMA.

In the last 10 years, the Enforcement Directorate registered the highest number of money laundering and foreign exchange violation cases in the 2021-22 financial year -- at 1,180 and 5,313 complaints respectively, according to government data provided to Parliament on Monday.

During the financial years between 2012-13 to 2021-22, the federal probe agency filed a total of 3,985 criminal complaints under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) and 24,893 under the civil law of the Foreign Exchange Management Act (FEMA).

The data was provided to Lok Sabha in a written reply by the minister of state for finance, Pankaj Chaudhary.

According to it, the ED registered 221 money laundering cases during the 2012-13 fiscal. It filed 209 (2013-14), 178 (2014-15), 111 (2015-16), 200 (2016-17), 148 (2017-18), 195 (2018-19), 562 (2019-20), 981 (2020-21) and 1,180 cases (2021-22).

Similarly, the registration of FEMA cases stands at 1,722 (2012-13), 1,041 (2013-14), 915 (2014-15), 1,516 (2015-16), 1,993 (2016-17), 3,627 (2017-18), 2,659 (2018-19), 3,360 (2019-20), 2,747 (2020-21) and 5,313 (2021-22).

Overall, the minister said, till 31 March 2022, the ED recorded 5,422 cases under the PMLA, attached proceeds of crime of Rs. 1,04,702 crore (approximately), and filed prosecution complaints (charge sheets) in 992 cases resulting in the confiscation of Rs 869.31 crore and conviction of 23 accused.

The PMLA, enacted in 2002, was implemented on July 1, 2005.

Similarly, till March 31, 2002, the agency took up 30,716 cases for investigation under FEMA and issued 8,109 show cause notices (after completion of the investigation), the minister said.

As many as 6,472 show cause notices were adjudicated under the FEMA, thereby imposing a penalty of around Rs 8,130 crore and assets of Rs 7,080 crore (approximately) were seized under FEMA, MoS Chaudhary said.

FEMA was enacted in 1999 after repealing the Foreign Exchange Regulation Act (FERA) of 1973.