NEW DELHI: The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Sunday said it has attached immovable properties worth Rs 207 crore located in Tamil Nadu as part of a money laundering probe linked to an alleged fraud perpetrated by a Madurai-based group.

The ED investigation stems from an FIR registered by Tamil Nadu police’s Economic Offences Wing (EOW). The police FIR was registered following complaints lodged by investors against Neomax Properties Pvt. Ltd. and its group companies that allegedly “cheated several investors into depositing lakhs of money in various projects (plot development) by promising high returns with 12-30 per cent interest,” the Enforcement Directorate said in a statement.

The company and its promoters “failed” to fulfil their promise, it claimed. Neomax group of companies collected funds from the public running into hundreds of crores and cheated them by “diverting” these funds to shell entities, group companies, and other entities (outside the group), the ED said.

The group “manipulated” its books of accounts to conceal the proceeds of crime and the auditor of the group has confessed this in his statement, it said.