New Delhi: At least three companies, Kamna Credits and Promoters Pvt Ltd., Innocent Merchandise Pvt Ltd. and Renuka Investment Finance Ltd, that have bought electoral bonds to fund political parties for the elections have featured in the Ministry of Finance’s annual lists of ‘high-risk non-banking financial services (NBFCs)’ for violating rules under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).
The Ministry of Finance’s Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU), which disseminates information related to suspect financial transactions to enforcement agencies and its counterparts in foreign countries, had, for the first time in 2018, published a list of 9,491 “high-risk financial institutions” to alert the enforcement agencies for alleged money laundering.
Quoting sources in the FIU then, a Times of India report had said, “The activities of these institutions – post the demonetisation of large currency notes of Rs 1,000 and Rs 500 in November 2016 – were under the scanner of the FIU and it published their names after analysing their data from various information sources.”
A senior ministry official had told the newspaper, “The publication of this information in newspapers is primarily a step by the FIU to make aware the public that these NBFCs are not law compliant and that they should refrain from indulging into transactions with them.”
Kamna Credits and Promoters Pvt Ltd.
The 2018 list of the FIU had featured Kamna Credits and Promoters Pvt Ltd. (No. 3784 in the FIU list) for “non-compliance with PMLA and PML rules i.e., non-registration of principal officers”.
A Kolkata-based company, it bought electoral bonds worth Rs 5 crore on January 4, 2022. Four days later, the ECI announced assembly elections in Uttar Pradesh, Manipur, Punjab, Uttarakhand, and Goa.
Innocent Merchandise Pvt Ltd.
Yet another ‘high-risk’ company named by the ministry’s watchdog unit in 2018 for violating PMLA rules was Innocent Merchandise Pvt Ltd.
Also a Kolkata-based company, it bought electoral bonds worth Rs 25 crore on April 12, 2019.
While the State Bank of India (SBI) has not disclosed the unique codes of the bonds yet, which would reveal which political party it had funded, the bonds were bought a day after the first phase of the 2019 general elections.
Also read: ‘Unique Numbers Recorded by SBI’: Investigative Journalist Who Bought Electoral Bond
Renuka Investment Finance Ltd
Another company that features in the ministry’s annual ‘high-risk’ list in 2018, 2019 and 2022 that had bought electoral bonds is Renuka Investment Finance Ltd.
Registered in Uttar Pradesh’s Sonbhadra, the company, also on April 12, 2019, bought electoral bonds worth Rs 5 crore. It is not clear if the amount has been redeemed by a political party.
Interestingly, in 2018, the FIU had named a Kolkata-based company, ABC Financial Services Ltd, as one of the high-risk NBFCs for violating the anti-money laundering Act. In the electoral bonds data revealed by SBI, a company with a similar name – ABC India Ltd – bought electoral bonds. On April 12,2019, it bought bonds worth Rs 40 crore.
ABC India Ltd is also registered in Kolkata. The Ministry of Corporate Affairs’ documents show that ABC Financial Services Ltd and ABC India Ltd have the same registered postal address in Kolkata and a common director.
