New Delhi, Jul 12 (PTI) Assets worth more than Rs 762 crore of PACL (the Pearls Group) and its promoters have been attached under the anti-money laundering law in a case linked to an alleged Rs 48,000 crore Ponzi scheme, in which numerous investors were duped, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) said on Saturday.

A provisional order has been issued under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) to attach the 68 immovable properties located across Punjab, Haryana, Delhi, Maharashtra, and in Australia, the central probe agency said in a statement.

The money-laundering probe of 2015 stems from a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) FIR against Pearl Agrotech Corporation Limited (PACL), PGF Limited, its main promoter, late Nirmal Singh Bhangoo, and others for operating "fraudulent" investment schemes to deceive investors.

Through these schemes, PACL and its directors "defrauded" the investors of about Rs 48,000 crore, the ED said.

"The funds fraudulently collected from lakhs of gullible investors were systematically diverted and layered through multiple transactions to conceal their illicit origin," the agency added.

The attached assets are in the name of Bhangoo, his family members and entities related to PACL, it said.

The total value of these properties is Rs 762.47 crore, the ED said.

Bhangoo died in August last year. PTI NES RC

Asset attachment under PMLA: provisional restraint placed on immovable properties linked to an alleged investor fraud scheme. Provisional attachment under the PMLA has been ordered against immovable properties held in the names of the promoters, their family members and related entities of a corporate group alleged to have run a Ponzi-style investor scheme, on the basis that investor funds were fraudulently diverted and layered to conceal their illicit origin, and thus constitute proceeds of crime.