White Collar Crimes 2021 Trends

While the past year has been unprecedented amidst the pandemic, Indian enforcement, and investigative agencies, continued to be active in terms of high-profile investigations/arrests and dealing with cybercrimes. We have also witnessed regulatory changes in governance norms and increase in accountability by way of reporting and disclosure requirements. The year also started with India being ranked 86^th among 180 countries, in the Corruption Perception Index (CPI) for 2020, prepared by Transparency International. Below is a broad overview of the enforcement, regulatory and judicial trends in 2021:

Enforcement landscape:

On the very first day of 2021, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) attached assets worth INR 72 crores of an individual based in Maharashtra as part of the PMC Bank money laundering investigation. Among other cases, the ED also provisionally attached assets worth INR 35.48 crores in a money laundering case linked to an alleged bank fraud. The ED has