Guwahati: In the last 10 years, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) has registered a total of 3985 cases under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, 2002 (PMLA). Additionally, the ED has taken up around 24893 cases for investigation under the provisions of the Foreign Exchange Management Act, 1999 (FEMA).

The Department of Revenue of the Ministry of Finance gave the data in the Lok Sabha on July 25 in response to a question by Pankaj Chaudhary, Minister of State in Finance.

The agency for financial probe investigated 5313 cases under the FEMA in 2021-22 alone, and 1180 cases were recorded under the PMLA during this period, the highest in ten years.

Till March 31, 2022, the Directorate of Enforcement recorded around 5422 cases under Prevention of Money
Laundering Act, 2002, which resulted in the attachment of
proceeds of crime to the tune of approximately Rs. 1,04,702 crore. A prosecution complaint has been filed in 992 cases resulting in the confiscation of Rs. 869.31 crores and 23 accused persons have been convicted, reported the Finance Ministry.

Notably, the highest number of cases recorded year-wise under the PMLA by the Directorate of Enforcement has been in 2021-22, with a total of 1180 cases. During the same year, 5313 cases were investigated under the FEMA, the highest number annually in the last ten years.

Under the Foreign Exchange Management Act, 1999, ED had investigated 30716 till March 31, 2022. Of these 8109 show cause notices (SCN) have been issued. Further, 6472
SCNs were adjudicated under FEMA, thereby imposing a penalty of around Rs. 8130 crores. Assets to the tune of approximately Rs. 7080 crore have been seized under the Act.