Breaking: PACL investors move Supreme Court to sell company’s Australia assets

In a major development in the PACL Ponzi scam, the employees, investors and customers in Kerala have filed a fresh application in the Supreme Court praying for a direction to the court-appointed Committee to seize and sell all properties situated in Australia and belonging to the Company, its promoters and directors..The matter was mentioned today by advocates PB Suresh, Vipin Nair and Tishampathy Sen before the Bench of Justices Anil R Dave, Shiva Kirti Singh and AK Goel. The Court took the application on board, issued notice and posted it for hearing on April 5..The employees, investors and customers had earlier intervened in the matter through an association PACL Employees and Customer Protection Forum (Petitioner)..In their application, the Petitioner association has contended that the the Promoters and Directors of PACL “in particular its Chairman and Managing Director Mr. Nirmal Bhangoo, has transferred over USD 130 million (i.e., approx. INR 884 Crores) from out of the amounts collected from investors in India, to Australia.”.“It is believed more than USD 100 million (i.e., approx. INR 680 Crores) has been transferred by the Directors of PACL Ltd. to Australia. Investigations indicate that in the year 2009 the said transferred money was used to purchase the Hotel Sheraton Mirage in the Gold Coast city. Mr. Nirmal Bhangoo is considered to have spent USD 62 million in buying the said resort and USD 20 million more in renovating it.”.The petitioner has also made serious allegations against former Queensland Premier Anna Bligh and former Australian High Commissioner to India, Peter Varhgese..As per the petition,.“It is further submitted that it is understood that in October 2010, in Delhi, as part of a trade mission, and Brisbane’s 2018 Commonwealth Games bid, former Queensland Premier Ms. Anna Bligh and the then Australian High Commissioner to India, Peter Varghese, met Pearls Group directors, i.e., Mr. Gurpratap Singh, Mrs. Sukhwinder Kaur and Mr. Rikhab Jai, along with the Pearls Australia – joint managing directors – Mr. Paul Brinsmead and Peter Madrers. The said meeting reportedly was “designed to encourage the Pearls Group to increase its investment portfolio in Queensland”..The petitioner has submitted that Bligh directly dealt with requests from members of Bhangoo’s family to obtain “state-sponsored” visas..“Reportedly, it is a matter of record that Ms. Bligh dealt directly with requests from members of Mr. Bhangoo’s family to obtain “state-sponsored” visas. It is submitted and ought to be noted that a number of Mr. Bhangoo’s relatives are now living in Australia. His daughter, Barinder Kaur, and her family lives in an opulent canal-front property in the Gold Coast suburb of Hope Island, bought for USD 4.95 million (approx. INR 33.7 Crores) in 2011 by Pearls Infrastructure Projects, an affiliate of PACL Ltd.”.The petitioner has made, inter alia, the following prayers:.Pass an order directing that all properties either in the name of PACL Ltd. or in the names of its Promoters/ Directors be sold by the Committee appointed pursuant to the order dated 2.02.2016.Direct SEBI and the Lodha Committee to contact the Competent Authorities at Australia to enquire into and deal with all properties of PACL Ltd. .On February 2 this year, the Court had appointed a Committee headed by former Chief Justice of India RM Lodha to oversee the refund of money by PACL to its investors..Read more about the PACL case here.