Bengaluru: The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has issued a provisional attachment order for immovable properties worth Rs. 39 crore belonging to M/s Future Metals Pvt. Ltd., other companies in the group, and the promoters Sudheer Sriram and Naveen Sriram.

Sudheer Sriram fled the country in 2009 after a scam of Rs. 1,208 crore that he was allegedly involved in surfaced. He was nabbed by the CBI at the Kempegowda International Airport in Bengaluru in February this year.

The scam involved 134 Letters of Credit (LoC) facilitated by Spices Trading Corporation Ltd. (STCL) to M/s Future Metals Pvt. Ltd. that went overdue. The firm had entered into business with STCL to import high-value non-ferrous scrap, mainly copper and nickel, a deviation from the core business of STCL – spices.

The ED had, in 2009, unearthed the scam where the firm had duped STCL of up to Rs. 1,208 crore. The ED had raided the firm’s offices on M.G. Road in Bengaluru in 2009 while the CBI registered FIRs. But by then, Sudheer Sriram had fled the country and was reportedly based in the UAE.

“During the probe, an offence of money laundering has been made out against Naveen Sriram, Sudheer Sriram and others. It has been revealed that they have siphoned off Rs. 1,208 crore through criminal conspiracy. They have laundered the said illegally-earned tainted money in the form of investment in immovable properties in their names and in the names of their family members and group companies to project the said proceeds of crime as untainted money. The attached immovable properties are in the form of land in various places in Punjab and Tamil Nadu,” a statement from ED said.