Madhu Koda, aides blow Rs 3,500 crore scam money on bad investments

NEW DELHI: The Madhu Koda scam may be worth over Rs 3,500 crore but interrogation of his aide Anil Bastawade, who was arrested by Enforcement Directorate (ED) last week, has revealed that the alleged scamsters lost much of the scam money due to bad investments.

Most of the money was sunk in countries such as the UAE where the accused invested hundreds of crores of rupees in real estate when prices were at their peak. Months after the investments, the Dubai real estate market crashed, leaving the accused with huge losses.

In other countries such as Indonesia and Liberia, part of the assets created by the accused with the ill-gotten money was confiscated by local authorities for violation of investment rules.

Not surprisingly, till now ED has been able to attach only Rs 120 crore worth of properties belonging to the accused. Sources said as the case goes forward, more properties will be attached but the entire worth would not add up to more than Rs 500 crore.

Compare this to the amount of money the accused are alleged to have swindled. According to ED's status report given to Jharkhand High Court last year, of the total scam amount, Koda alone swindled around Rs 1,340 crore of government funds. His aides swindled comparable amounts with Arvind Vyas leading the pack with Rs 1,020 crore. Others in the list are Binod Kumar Sinha with Rs 915.20 crore, Vijay Joshi with Rs 152 crore, Manoj Kumar Punamia with Rs 59.69 crore, Vikas Sinha with Rs 45 crore and Kamlesh Kumar Singh with Rs 4.43 crore.

"The scam is huge, but the accused have also lost a lot of money. In Dubai alone, Koda is suspected to have invested in properties worth close Rs 250 crore at the time of the scam. The Dubai market has crashed now, shaving off much of his investment. Bastavade had played a pivotal role in routing these investments through hawala channels to Indonesia and Dubai," an ED official said.