A Silver Notice has been issued against Karan A. Chanana, the chairman and managing director of Amira Pure Foods, who was reportedly declared a fugitive economic offender, in connection with an alleged Rs 1,200 crore(over $130,000 USD) bank loan fraud case. Today’s post will detail the facts of the case, what a Silver Notice entails, and the effect a Silver Notice has on one’s life and assets.
What is a Silver Notice?
Before understanding the details of this case, it’s valuable to comprehend the effects of certain INTERPOL tools. In this instance, INTERPOL issued a Silver Notice, which enables countries to share alerts and requests for information worldwide. The Silver Notice helps in identifying, locating and tracing assets acquired through criminal proceeds by the fugitive across INTERPOL’s member countries.
What is the effect of Silver Notices?
As listed in a previous post following the Silver Notice’s induction into INTERPOL, Silver Notices serve the purpose of:
- Helping to trace and recover criminal assets, combat organized crime and enhance international police cooperation.
- Allowing member countries to request information on assets linked to a person’s criminal activities such as fraud, corruption, drug trafficking, environmental crime, and other serious offenses.
- Aiding in the location and obtaining information about laundered assets including properties, vehicles, financial accounts and businesses.
- Serving as a basis for requests for seizure, confiscation, or recovery of assets, subject to national laws
Therefore, a Silver Notice can allow law enforcement to trace, confiscate, or seize certain assets associated with criminal activity. This differs from a Red Notice, which serves to locate and extradite a person to the requesting country.
How do Silver Notices relate to this case?
Mr. Chanana, the head of global rice brand Amira, was initially investigated for various crimes including allegedly committing fraud and criminal misappropriation. More recently though, Mr. Chanana and Anita Daing, the whole-time director of Amira Rice, were declared as offenders under the Fugitive Economic Offenders Act by a Delhi court. The Silver Notice was reportedly released at the request of the Enforcement Directorate (ED), the premier financial investigation agency of the Government of India, and aims to trace and freeze Mr. Chanana’s assets, as he is currently reported to be in the UK.
In the following post, I’ll explain how Red and Silver Notices differ and how law enforcement officials may choose to request both notices in a single case.
As always, thoughts and comments are welcomed.