The Enforcement Directorate (ED) returned assets worth more than that $63,000 crore to the victims, which is about 27% of the total victims $Rs 2.36 lakh crore has been attached so far under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), according to the latest data released by the Financial Crimes Investigation Agency.
A major portion of the funds have been returned to individual investors or victim banks in high-profile cases involving Vijay Mallya ( $14,131 Crore), Pearl Group ( $15,582 crore), Sterling Biotech Limited ( $9,811 crore), Mehul Choksi ( $2,565 crore), Nirav Modi ( $1,112 crore). Granted, all cases in the Sterling Biotech investigation are now closed following the Supreme Court order in November 2025, but those assets were seized and recovered before then.
“For the last two years, the focus has been on attaching properties under the Anti-Money Laundering Act so that the accused cannot isolate them, and then coordinating with banks, NBFCs, resolution specialists, etc. to return the assets, so that the victims can recover their defrauded money,” said an officer, who requested anonymity.
The ED data, seen by HT, indicates that the agency did not even think of recovering proceeds of crime (PoCs) linked to the victims from 2005 (when the PMLA came into effect) to 2019, and everything it seized became judicial property and remained in the custody of the court till the end of the trial. The recovery, permitted under Section 8 of the Act, first commenced in 2019-20, when total assets were worth $Rs 1,613 crore has been returned to banks and other victims. Next, PoCs $13,517 recovered in 2021-22, $71 lakh crore in 2023-24, $15,263 crore in 2024-25 and $33,000 crore in 2025-26.
The executive directorate aims to recover about 40% to 50% of the associated assets by the end of this year, officials said.
As of December 2025, the ED has recorded 8,391 cases of money laundering across the country. However, the courts issued rulings in only 58 cases, of which conviction orders were issued in 55 cases convicting 123 defendants, according to the government’s response in Parliament in February this year.
Besides the PMLA, the CEO also accelerated his proceedings under the 2018 law – the Fugitive Economic Offenders (FEO) Act, by seizing assets worth $930 Crores so far.
The Anti-Money Laundering Act was enacted in 2002 and was implemented from 1 July 2005 to check serious crimes of tax evasion, black money generation and money laundering.
