‘Some foreigners using dirty money to buy Goa property’

PANAJI - Several controversial real estate deals by foreigners in Goa could well have been funded by proceeds from crime and narcotics trade, an Enforcement Directorate official Friday said.

“We are probing the possibility of money sourced from proceeds of crime and through sale of narcotics being used to purchase of properties,” the department’s Assistant Director Jyoti Sharma told media persons here.

She said it has also been found that large volumes of money were being illegally routed by several foreign-run companies from tax havens abroad to purchase properties in coastal resort villages in the state.

However, she did not name the countries or financial institutions from where the money was being sourced.

Sharma was referring to the 350-odd cases being probed by the ED concerning properties purchased mainly in coastal Goa, by individual foreigners or by companies owned by foreign nationals in violation of the Foreign Exchange Management Act (FEMA) and violation of Reserve Bank of India guidelines.

“Out of the 350 cases, we have put 45 to 50 cases involving companies on fast track. We will be submitting our report within a few months,” Sharma said.

The official said that in several cases where land, which was purchased for setting up hospitality industry units by companies headed by foreigners, was being used for “other purposes”.

“In several other cases we have found that no stated business is conducted. And at times no IT returns are filed at all, which is in contravention of FEMA (Foreign Exchange Management Act) norms,” she said.

The state government 2007 had asked the ED to probe the properties bought by foreigners in the period between 2003 and 2007, after public outcry that large chunks of land were being illegally purchased by foreigners, especially in coastal Goa.

Sharma also cited several cases where land graded as “agricultural holding” was fraudulently converted to non agricultural used after it was bought by foriegners or companies owned by them.

“We have already completed investigation involving a Swiss national, August Thommen, in February last month. He had violated FEMA norms while purchasing 1,000 sq metre land at Anjuna (beach village in north Goa). The government has confiscated the property,” Sharma said, adding that Thommen had been fined Rs.2 lakh for violating the forex law.

She further said that a lot of properties were bought by foreigners, while visiting India on a tourist visa, while FEMA stipulated that a foreigner should be a “resident of India” (residing in the country for more than 182 days) at the time of carrying out a real estate transaction.