In crackdown on shell companies with China links, mastermind arrested
The arrest of Dortse - made on Saturday - followed search and seizure operations “on the offices of Jillian Consultants India Private Ltd.
In what is being defined as a huge crackdown, the Serious Fraud Investigation Office - or the SFIO - has made a key arrest in a racket linked to incorporation of a large number of shell companies with Chinese links in India. Dortse, who showed himself to be a resident of Mandi in Himachal Pradesh, has emerged as the “mastermind” or the “chief plotter” in the racket, a statement by the ministry of corporate affairs said on Sunday. The SFIO is a corporate fraud investigating agency.
As per the inputs gathered so far, Dortse had fled from Delhi-NCR to a remote place in Bihar. He was trying to escape the country through a road route. He was arrested on Saturday, and later produced in the Jurisdictional Court and Orders for his transit remand.
The arrest followed search and seizure operations “on the offices of Jillian Consultants India Private Ltd, a wholly owned subsidiary of Jilian Hong Kong Ltd., at Gurgaon, Fininty Pvt Ltd at Bangalore and Husys Consulting Ltd, an erstwhile listed company at Hyderabad,” the official statement added. Dortse was found to be on the board of Jillian India Ltd.
The shell companies are possibly involved “in serious financial crimes detrimental to the financial security of the country”, and the investigators are delving deeper into this. Apart from Jilian Consultants India Private Limited, the SFIO was tasked with the probe of 32 other firms in the case.
"Boxes filled with company seals and digital signatures of dummy directors have been recovered from the site. The Indian employees were in touch with the Chinese counterparts through Chinese instant messaging app Husys Ltd (and were) also found to be acting on behalf of Jilian India Ltd," the ministry pointed out.
