New Delhi, Jan 6 (NationPress) The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has provisionally seized the movable and immovable assets of a real estate and construction firm, valued at Rs 51.57 crore, including a hotel and a villa, due to alleged misuse of funds collected from homebuyers and delays in delivering flats, according to an official statement released on Tuesday.

This action against Ocean Seven Buildtech Pvt. Ltd. (OSBPL) was undertaken by the ED’s headquarters in New Delhi, invoking the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), 2002, after an extensive financial investigation, as stated in the official communication.

The assets attached comprise immovable properties worth Rs 49.79 crore, which include a villa, a hotel and resort, office spaces, and several land parcels situated in Gurugram, Himachal Pradesh, and Maharashtra, as reported by the ED.

On the other hand, the movable assets, estimated at Rs 1.78 crore, consist of seized cash and bank balances associated with Swaraj Singh Yadav, Ocean Seven Buildtech Private Limited, and its affiliated entities, according to the ED.

The federal agency disclosed a systematic misappropriation of funds gathered from numerous homebuyers who had invested their savings in affordable housing projects.

The ED noted that these projects were left unfinished, allotments were cancelled arbitrarily, and homebuyers faced prolonged uncertainty and financial losses while the funds designated for project development were diverted for unrelated purposes.

Investigations have revealed that Swaraj Singh Yadav, the promoter and key decision-maker of OSBPL, played a pivotal role in orchestrating the entire fraudulent scheme. Funds collected from homebuyers for construction were intentionally misallocated instead of being utilized for the intended projects.

The ED commenced its investigation based on multiple FIRs filed by the Economic Offences Wing, Delhi Police, and Haryana Police, regarding offenses such as cheating, criminal breach of trust, forgery, and criminal conspiracy.

The cases are linked to affordable housing projects initiated by OSBPL, where significant sums were amassed from homebuyers and investors under the promise of timely construction and legal delivery, as per the statement.

Despite receiving funds, the projects were not completed, possession was not transferred, and genuine allottees were unlawfully deprived of their units through arbitrary cancellations and re-allotments, leading to substantial financial losses and distress for the buyers.

The ED further stated that under Yadav's guidance, project-specific escrow funds were circulated through unauthorized accounts and related entities, statutory safeguards were bypassed, and the same housing units were repeatedly resold at inflated prices, yielding considerable illicit gains.

Parking spaces and cancelled units were monetized at prices exceeding permissible limits, and forged documents were utilized to falsely justify illegal cancellations, according to the ED.

The misappropriated funds were layered and utilized for personal expenditures, acquisition of properties, and other ventures, revealing a calculated breach of trust placed by the homebuyers.