SFIO arrests ‘mastermind’ who arrange shell firms linked to China

The Serious Fraud Investigation Office (SFIO) has arrested a person who had masterminded the incorporation of numerous shell firms linked to China and offered dummy administrators on their boards to run the fraudulent companies. The arrest was a part of the crackdown on Chinese shell firms which might be allegedly into severe monetary crimes in India.

The company stated it had arrested a person named Dortse — who was on the board of Jillian India Ltd, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Jillian Hong Kong Ltd — and raided a number of locations to unearth the rip-off.

This follows simultaneous search-and-seizure operations carried out by the Ministry of Corporate Affairs (MCA) on September 8 within the workplaces of Jillian Consultants India Pvt Ltd, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Jilian Hong Kong Ltd at Gurgaon, in addition to Fininty Pvt Ltd at Bangalore and Husys Consulting Ltd at Hyderabad.

“Dortse is on the Board of Jillian India Ltd and has emerged as the mastermind of the whole racket of incorporating a large number of shell companies with Chinese links in India and providing dummy directors on their boards. The arrested person Dortse had shown himself to be a resident of Mandi in Himachal Pradesh as per the records filed with the Registrar of Companies (RoC),” in keeping with a press release by the ministry.

As per the MCA, proof procured through the enquiry by RoC Delhi and the simultaneous search operations pointed to dummy administrators being paid by Jilian India Ltd to behave as dummies in a number of shell firms.

“Boxes filled with company seals and digital signatures of dummy directors have been recovered from the site. The Indian employees were in touch with their Chinese counterparts through a Chinese instant messaging app. Husys Ltd was also found to be acting on behalf of Jillian India Ltd,” it added.

Initial observations reveal that Husys had a pact with Jilian Hong Kong. Investigations thus far have revealed the potential involvement of those shell firms in severe monetary crimes detrimental to the monetary safety of the nation.

SFIO was assigned by the federal government to analyze Jillian Consultants India Pvt Ltd and 32 different firms to SFIO on September 9, 2022.

Dortse and one Chinese nationwide are the 2 administrators of Jilian Consultants India Pvt Ltd. Based on inputs and the investigations carried out, it was gathered that Dortse had fled from Delhi-NCR to a distant place in Bihar and was making an attempt to flee the nation by means of the highway route. The SFIO arrested Dortse on September 10.  FE