Rs 7.7 Lakh Cr Firm Pays MD Rs 17,000: ED Exposes Bizarre Financial Violations at Rajesh Exports

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has detailed a series of extraordinary financial discrepancies at gold jewelry giant M/s Rajesh Exports Limited (REL), exposing severe departures from normal corporate governance.

The latest findings from the probe, conducted under the Foreign Exchange Management Act (FEMA), 1999, come after law enforcement teams launched extensive searches across nine corporate locations in Bengaluru and Mumbai.

A primary issue is the lack of documentation for major international trade movements. REL has failed to produce necessary paperwork for its imports, exports, and overseas investments, rendering any independent verification of its cross-border balances nearly impossible.

The firm has provided no contemporaneous records to back up its claimed Rs 1,035 crore investment into African mines. Furthermore, the jewelry giant was executing opaque cross-border operations totaling roughly Rs 3,000 crore. This involved netting off massive trade payables against receivables with suspicious entities stationed in the UAE and other tax havens.

Compensation Anomaly

The investigation highlighted extreme abnormalities in the remuneration of the company's senior management. Despite Rajesh Exports reporting an astronomical consolidated revenue of approximately Rs 7.7 lakh crore, its executive payroll completely defied commercial logic.

According to the ED, the company’s CFO has legally drawn zero salary since the year 2020. Whereas, the Managing Director (MD) was being compensated only Rs 17,000 per month.

Inventory Shortages, Offshore Siphoning

The discrepancies extended directly to physical assets. When federal teams carried out a strict physical verification of stock at the company's premises, they discovered a 40% deficit between the actual gold and inventory found on-site and the figures officially documented in the factory registers.

The agency also uncovered illicit capital flight linked to global shadow networks. Highly suspect block trades in REL shares were executed by individuals named in the leaks released by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists. Preliminary evidence indicates that more than Rs 600 crore was systematically siphoned out of India through calculated share manipulation using NRI benamidars (proxy owners).

A massive volume of incriminating digital evidence and physical documents has been seized for forensic review. The Enforcement Directorate has confirmed that its investigation into the broader financial network remains underway.

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