Directorate of Enforcement (ED) issued provisional attachment order under Prevention of Money Laundering Act, 2002 (PMLA) attaching bank accounts of M/s Amnesty International India pvt. ltd. (AIIPL) and M/s Indians for Amnesty International Trust (IAIT) as both the entities have acquired the proceeds of crime and layered the same in the form of various movable properties. The said provisional attachment order involves attachment of movable properties worth of Rs17.66 crores being proceeds of crime.
ED initiated investigation on the basis of firregistered by CBI, EOU-IV, New Delhi against M/s Amnesty International India pvt ltd. (AIIPL), M/s Indians for Amnesty International Trust (IAIT), M/s Amnesty International India Foundation Trust (AIIFT) and M/s Amnesty International South Asia Foundation (AISAF), under section 120-B IPC, 1860 and under sections 11, 35 & 39 of FCRA, foreign contributions regulatory act, 2010.
In this case, Amnesty International India Foundation Trust (AIIFT) had been granted of permission under the FCRA, 2010 during 2011-12 for receiving foreign contribution from Amnesty International UK. However, the same was cancelled on the basis of the adverse inputs received. However, since permission/registration has been denied to the said entity on the basis of adverse inputs received from security agencies during the year 2011-12, M/s Amnesty International India pvt.ltd. (AIIPL) and M/s Indians Amnesty International Trust (IAIT) were formed in the year 2013-14 and 2012-13 respectively to escape the fcra route and carried out ngo activities in the guise of service export and FDI.
On the basis of investigation, it is revealed that, upon cancellation of FCRA licence by Government of India, M/s Amnesty International India Foundation Trust, Amnesty entities adopted new method to receive money from abroad, that M/s Amnesty International, UK sent Rs 51.72 crores to AIIPL in the guise of export of services and foreign direct investment. for export proceeds/advances for export of services to Amnesty International UK, there was no documentary proof for the alleged export such as invoices and copies of agreement between M/s AIIPL and Amnesty International UK has been furnished by AIIPL to the authorized dealer (AD) banks.
It is prima facie found that M/s Amnesty International India pvt. ltd. and others have obtained foreign remittances to the tune of Rs 51.72 crores in the guise export of services and foreign direct investments from M/s Amnesty International (UK) whose source is the donations from the individual donors. The total attachments stands to Rs 19.54 crores in this case till date.
