The Department of Money Laundering Investigation (DMLI) has been collecting the details of companies owned by businessman Ajeya Raj Sumargi as part of its investigation into the legality and source of his property.

The details have been collected from Nepal Rastra Bank (NRB), most of the commercial banks, Office of the Company Registrar (OCR), Department of Industry, and Tax Office, among other government agencies, in order to probe Sumargi’s property and their legality. But the Land Revenue Office has yet to furnish the details of land owned by Sumargi. 

"We have received the details sought from most of the government bodies and commerical banks. We are waiting fo details from Land Revenue Office,” said a source at the DMLI. “Further study on the details is in progress.” But the department official refused to disclose the exact status of study on the same.

In the second week of January earlier this year, the department had established a file to investigate the details of Sumargi’s property and its legality. “Prior to this, we collected property details of his closer relatives. We sought the details in order to study his banking transactions with his relatives.”

The required procedures such as registration of complaint, initial investigation and appointment of investigation officer have been completed according to provision of Money Laundering Prevention Act 2064.  

The department has collected details of his financial transactions and investment in his companies. “It appears that he has brought money for an unregistered company. And he has been found to have done a lot of financial transactions with many people,” the source said. “But the conclusion about the details such as why, for what purpose and what kind of money came could be decided only after the completion of study.”

The official said the file to investigate Sumargi’s property was established based on the transactions of certain amount through banks during Kewal Prasad Bhandari’s tenure as Director General of the Department. But he was transferred immediately after it. As of now two director generals have been changed.

Sumargi, who owns Muktishree Group, has been trying to get clearance from the NRB for the past last three years to bring around around Rs1billion from abroad.

The NRB has frozen over Rs3 billion brought by Sumargi from the British Virgin Islands for faililng to follow the due procedure as per the Foreign Exchange Regulation Act and also stopped him from bringing in an additional Rs8 billion from abroad.