Enforcement Directorate questions ABG Shipyard ex-Chairman

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has recently questioned Rishi Agarwal, former chairman of ABG Shipyard, in connection with its probe into what could be the country's biggest bank fraud.

Surat-based ABG Shipyard is accused of duping a consortium of 28 banks to the tune of ₹22,842 crore.

As part of its investigation into the allegations, ED is looking into shell companies that Agarwal allegedly created to launder money borrowed from banks. Agarwal was grilled by the agency last month, said people in the know. ED had registered a case under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) based on an FIR registered by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) in February.


CBI has already grilled Agarwal exhaustively on more than a couple of occasions in February. The agency has also questioned more than half a dozen bank officials in connection with the case.

Agarwal and the bankers were confronted by CBI based on a forensic audit report submitted by EY India to the bank consortium, based on which one of the banks had approached the agency seeking registration of an FIR. The EY forensic audit report was submitted in January 2019. It flagged several "potential diversions" of loans taken from the banks by the company and its directors.

ET had previously reported that EY was likely to be a key prosecution witness in the case.