In India’s realty sector, black money is a well-known reality. In its latest expose, investigative website cobrapost.com has claimed to have pinned 35 realtors across Delhi, Noida, Gurgaon, Ghaziabad, Jaipur, Lucknow, Mumbai, Kolkata, Hyderabad, Bangalore and Kochi.

Named and Shamed

Ajnara India Ltd
Earth Infrastructures Ltd
Mahagun Group
Prateek Group
Sarvottam Group
Lakhani Builders Pvt Ltd
Lodha Group
Kanchhal Group
Raheja Developers
Shalimar Corporation Ltd
Geoworks Realty Pvt Ltd
Investors Forum India
SVP Builders (I) Ltd
Rajput Properties & Developers Pvt Ltd
International Land Developers Pvt Ltd
Fortune Infra Developers Pvt Ltd
Manglam Build-Developers Ltd
Godawari Developers
Rudra Buildwell Projects Pvt Ltd
Shri Group
Plus Projects Pvt Ltd
RG Group
ABW Infrastructure Ltd
Alpine Housing Development Corporation Ltd
Antriksh Group
National Builders
Okay Plus Builders & Developers
Janapriya Engineers Syndicate Pvt Ltd
Bamatech
Archies Projects Pvt Ltd
Asten Realtors Pvt Ltd
Vibgyor Housing Ltd
Travancore Builders Pvt Ltd
Vedic Realty Pvt Ltd
Concorde Group

These firms, Cobrapost says, are involved in money-laundering – taking illicit money and converting it into white money by allowing their clients to buy properties. Promising to do bulk property transactions ranging from 10 per cent to 90 per cent in black money are two real estate company CMDs, 10 managing directors, 15 directors and executive directors, three CEOs and COOs, a president and a vice-president, two AVPs, four heads of marketing and sales, three general managers, three assistant general managers and many other senior employees, the website claims.

The combined turnover of these 35 companies—spread across Uttar Pradesh, Delhi, Haryana, Rajasthan, West Bengal, Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra and Karnataka—would run into thousands of crores.

According to Cobrapost editor Anirudh Bahal, one employee (of a real estate company) even offered to take Rs 100 crore in black and convert it into white with help from non-banking finance companies in a clear violation of income tax laws, foreign exchange management act, prevention of money laundering act, and others. Senior officials said that accepting payments in black was nothing new for them and that it was an accepted norm of the real estate industry. “Some of these real estate officials are caught on camera ready to accept black money abroad via hawala,” said Bahal.

Bahal elaborated that taking an alias, Cobrapost correspondent Mohammad Hizbullah approached these companies with an offer of buying properties in bulk on behalf of a prominent politician he was supposedly working for. He put a rider to this prospective bulk deal: a significant part of the payment will be made in black.

Almost all officials of these companies readily agreed to do the favour, throwing open a host of ways to help launder money, Bahal said.

for more: http://cobrapost.com/index.php/news-detail?nid=7291&cid=23