MUMBAI, Feb. 26 -- The Enforcement Directorate (ED)'s money-laundering investigation into an alleged Rs.1,438-crore bank fraud involving a private trading firm has revealed that an earlier forensic audit of its transactions had pointed at several irregularities. According to the audit, at the time the accused company, Ushdev International Limited (UIL), was defaulting on repaying its loans, it floated seven overseas entities in the United Kingdom, Virgin Islands and Singapore. Officials said that these entities had allegedly generated revenue of Rs 8,400 crore in FY 2017-2018 as per the complaint from a consortium of banks led by the State Bank of India (SBI), which had sanctioned credit facilities to the firm from April 2013 to March 2018. The audit also pointed out that during 2017-18, the accused firm sold goods worth Rs 421 crore to three UK-based firms that were dormant during the period of the transactions. The consortium of banks classified the loan accounts as non-performing assets on October 2, 2016. Later, it got the aforementioned forensic audit done of transactions between April 2013 and May 2018. After the irregularities surfaced in the accounts, the accused company's loan accounts were declared fraudulent in 2019. The ED investigation is based on a July 2022 FIR registered by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI)'s bank security and fraud cell against UIL, its two directors and unknown public servants among others. So far, the ED has provisionally attached properties worth Rs.176.37 crore in the case. The company, which dealt in metal trading, was allegedly under stress from December 2015 to January 2016. According to ED officials, it had obtained loans and credit facilities from the SBI-led consortium of banks by submitting forged trade documents. The documents showed business transactions, based on which the banks released the funds; however, the transactions had never taken place. UIL received various types of credit facilities, including cash credit, Letters of Credit (LC) and buyers' credit. (An LC is a bank guarantee ensuring payment to a seller in a trade deal while a buyers' credit is a short-term loan offered to importers.) The ED probe revealed that funds received through the LCs were routed to shell companies and supplier entities controlled by the accused, which acted only as intermediaries. The money was then moved through several entities and allegedly routed back to group companies through circular transactions without any commercial justification. Investigators also found that a substantial portion of the cash credit funds was diverted to related entities under the guise of advances. Many of these firms were either inactive or not engaged in legitimate business. The probe further revealed that LC proceeds were used to repay buyers' credit loans linked to imports that were later re-exported to related overseas entities....