All about the Fugitive Economic Offenders Act
The Fugitive Economic Offenders Act of 2018 was introduced to address the issue of economic offenders who fled the nation to avoid being investigated. Numerous prominent economic fraudsters, including Lalit Modi, Mehul Choksi, Vijay Malya, Jatin Mehta, Deepak Talwar, Nirav Modi and Mehul Choksi, fled India to avoid punishment.
Who is a Fugitive Economic Offender?
If a person has committed certain specified offences with a value of one hundred crore rupees or more and escaped India to avoid prosecution, they will be labelled fugitive economic offenders. This act is targeted at restricting them on economic grounds.
Benefits of the Act
If someone is identified as a fugitive economic offender, their property may be seized and sold by the creditor. The assets encompass all of the economic offender’s properties, including Benami properties and assets abroad, in addition to those that were acquired through deception. The condition of India’s banking firms will improve as a result.
This Act has a significant potential to help with the non-performing asset problem. As a result, this would increase public confidence in India’s financial sector.
Furthermore, the strain on the judiciary will be lessened because fugitive economic offenders cannot make a legal lawsuit about the seized assets in any Indian court.
What are the loopholes of the Act?
This Act only extends to economic offenders who have left India; it does not apply to individuals who continue to perpetrate fraud while living in India. Again, for certain offences with a value of one hundred crore rupees or more, this Act is applicable. Together, all other high-profile economic crimes with a combined value of under 100 crore rupees make up a sizable portion of NPA.
Furthermore, in India, there are numerous laws, but the issue is that they are not consistently carried out. Thus, a novel behaviour may not win over the audience.
Declaring someone to be an economic fugitive is against the law’s tenet that everyone is presumed innocent until proven guilty.
This law allows bondholders to seize and liquidate all of an economic offender’s possessions. Therefore, honest shareholders must also take the hit.
