Edelweiss Chairman Rashesh Shah appears before ED in forex case

Edelweiss Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Rashesh Shah appeared in front of officials of the Enforcement Directorate on January 15.

Rashesh Shah was accompanied by his lawyers at the ED office.

Shah was summoned by the ED in an investigation related to suspected illegal remittance of around Rs 740 crore being carried out by the agency.

The inquiry is being conducted under FEMA (Foreign Exchange Management Act).

Shah left ED office after six hours of questioning.

The transactions under inquiry are said to have happened between 2016 and 2018 where a company named Capstone Forex had remitted Rs 740 crore without following proper procedure of KYC for outward remittance.

In between, Sanjay Nathalal Shah resigned on Tuesday as independent director of Edelweiss Subsidiaries. Sanjay Shah was an independent director on boards of Edelweiss Finvest Private, Edelweiss Fund Advisors Private and Edelweiss Retail Finance.

ED had summoned Shah for January 9 but he sought an adjournment to a further date through his representative.

Capstone Forex was run from a small office located in the Mira Bhayander area in Thane district.

Shah had issued a statement, which said: "We have received communication from the Enforcement Directorate to appear and provide information about Edelweiss Group Companies dealings with a company called Capstone Forex. We would like to state that none of our companies have any transaction with the company Capstone Forex.”

“We further deny the wild baseless allegations contained in the news items, which are apparently attributed to unidentified sources. We are in fact shocked at the spread of unauthenticated allegations and inference being drawn therefrom,” added the statement further.

The Edelweiss statement also said Sanjay Shah was an independent director in some of Edelweiss group companies but was not related to Rashesh Shah.