Vijay Mallya created 20 shell companies; ED will confiscate more assets

Vijay Mallya, once known as the ‘King of Good Times’ for his extravagant lifestyle, is said to have created 20 shell companies, with his personal staff as directors.

The information has bee provided by the ED in its recent charge sheet that it filed in the KFA-IDBI money laundering case

ED has said that it would continue confiscating Mallya’s assets, out of which a coffee estate in Coorg (Karnataka) and other assets in Bengaluru would be the first ones to be confiscated, after the Rs 100 crore farm house in Alibaug (Maharashtra) that was recently confiscated.

Assets worth over Rs 9,600 crore have been attached in the criminal case launched by ED against Mallya last year

"Mallya was holding directly or indirectly movable and immovable assets, in the form of shares of public listed companies, by way of creating a web of shell companies. The assets were being in shell/dummy companies created by Mallya," said the ED.

The charge sheet that has been filed is over 5,000 pages, out of which 57 pages are of the main report and rest are annexure.

As per the charge sheet, Mallya had "formed a complex web structure of his group companies so as to indirectly control their affairs."

"He has nominated directors in those companies who were either his personal staff, retired company official or a third person," it said.

The shell firms that Mallya created are Ms PE Data Centre Resources Private Limited, Ms Pharma Trading Limited, Ms Kingfisher Finvest Limited, Devi Investment Private Limited, Ms MallyaInvestment Private Limited, Ms Explicit Consultancy Private Limited, Ms Ambitious Computech Private Limited and Vilora Consultancy Private Limited, among others.

A total of 9 accused have been named in the charge sheet by the ED including Mallya, Kingfisher Airlines (KFA), United Breweries (Holding) Limited and senior employees and executives of the now-defunct airline and the IDBI (Industrial Development Bank of India) bank.