CBI seizes gold worth Rs 67 lakh, FDs from SBI officer's residence-Business Today 27.11.2013
State Bank of India (SBI) on Monday said it has constituted an internal panel comprising two managing directors (MDs) to probe corruption charges against its deputy MD Shyamal Acharya, who has been asked to go on leave a day after his residence was raided by CBI in a graft case related to disbursal of a loan of over Rs 400 crore. The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) claimed to have seized gold and jewellery worth Rs 67 lakh from the Mumbai residence of the SBI officer.
"We have been informed by the CBI that Shyamal Acharya, deputy managing director and group executive (mid corporate groups) of our bank is being investigated. Acharya has been asked to proceed on leave," State Bank of India said in a statement.
Though the statement did not name the MDs in the probe panel, it has been learnt that Hemant G Contractor, who is the MD and group executive for international banking, and A Krishna Kumar, MD and group executive for national banking, are the members.
The spokesman did not say when the report will be submitted by the panel, which was constituted Sunday night.
"We have also constituted an internal committee comprising two senior managing directors to investigate internally," the statement said.
"Gold and jewellery worth Rs 67 lakh approximately, locker key, documents pertaining to investments in fixed deposits others and other incriminating documents have been recovered from the residence of the Deputy Managing Director. An estimated cash of Rs 15 lakh, jewellery and other incriminating documents were also recovered from the residence of the chairman of the private company, Piyoosh Goyal. Incriminating documents recovered during searches are being scrutinised for further investigation," a CBI spokesperson said in Delhi.
SBI said it stands committed to probity in its dealings and assured that it will continue to hold highest standards of honesty and transparency in its operations. The statement also said the bank is cooperating with the investigating agency in the probe.
On Sunday, CBI registered a case against Acharya, ex-SBI additional general manager K K Kumarah and Chairman of Worlds Window Group Piyoosh Goyal for alleged graft in disbursing loan of above Rs 400 crore. Worlds Window Group did not respond to email seeking their reaction on the development. Kumarah was arrested on Sunday.
CBI teams carried out searches at the residences of Acharya, Kumarah and Goyal in Mumbai and Kolkata.
"We have been informed by the CBI that Shyamal Acharya, deputy managing director and group executive (mid corporate groups) of our bank is being investigated. Acharya has been asked to proceed on leave," State Bank of India said in a statement.
Though the statement did not name the MDs in the probe panel, it has been learnt that Hemant G Contractor, who is the MD and group executive for international banking, and A Krishna Kumar, MD and group executive for national banking, are the members.
The spokesman did not say when the report will be submitted by the panel, which was constituted Sunday night.
"We have also constituted an internal committee comprising two senior managing directors to investigate internally," the statement said.
"Gold and jewellery worth Rs 67 lakh approximately, locker key, documents pertaining to investments in fixed deposits others and other incriminating documents have been recovered from the residence of the Deputy Managing Director. An estimated cash of Rs 15 lakh, jewellery and other incriminating documents were also recovered from the residence of the chairman of the private company, Piyoosh Goyal. Incriminating documents recovered during searches are being scrutinised for further investigation," a CBI spokesperson said in Delhi.
SBI said it stands committed to probity in its dealings and assured that it will continue to hold highest standards of honesty and transparency in its operations. The statement also said the bank is cooperating with the investigating agency in the probe.
On Sunday, CBI registered a case against Acharya, ex-SBI additional general manager K K Kumarah and Chairman of Worlds Window Group Piyoosh Goyal for alleged graft in disbursing loan of above Rs 400 crore. Worlds Window Group did not respond to email seeking their reaction on the development. Kumarah was arrested on Sunday.
CBI teams carried out searches at the residences of Acharya, Kumarah and Goyal in Mumbai and Kolkata.
Ex-CMD of Indian Bank, 14 others get 1-year jail for illegally granting loans
Former Indian Bank Chairman and Managing Director M Gopalakrishnan and six other former top bank officials were sentenced to one year rigorous imprisonment by a CBI court on Saturday in Chennai for allegedly causing a loss of Rs 31.75 crore by granting loans without proper security between 1992-96.
Principal Judge for CBI cases S Malathy held them guilty of conspiracy, criminal breach of trust, misconduct and cheating under various provisions of the IPC and Prevention of Corruption Act.
The court also sentenced eight others, including one businessman, M Varadaraju, to one year RI in the case and imposed a total fine of Rs.4.5 lakhs on all the convicts. The Judge suspended the sentence enabling them to appeal
Former bank officer gets 6 years jail in loan scam-TOI-27.02.2013
BHOPAL: A special CBI judge on Tuesday sentenced five persons including a former manager of the Central Bank of India's Shahpura branch here in connection with an alleged housing loan scam.
According to official sources, CBI had registered case against R S Iyer, the then branch manager on allegations that he had entered into criminal conspiracy with local businessmen and sanctioned housing loan to the tune of Rs 51,77,000 on the basis of forged documents.
He was booked under section 120 (b), 420, 468, 471 of IPC and Sec. 13(2) r/w 13(1) (d) of PC Act, 1988.
A charge-sheet was filed before the court of special CBI judge, Bhopal in 2004 against Iyer and others including Dharmendra Parmar, Sukhdev Prasad Makhjija, R K Dwivedi and Devendra Sharan Shrivastava.
While Iyer was sentenced to six years rigorous imprinsonment (RI) and slapped with a fine of Rs 1 lakh, others were awarded 3 years RI and fines under various sections.
Man, 91, gets 3-yr jail for bank fraud -TOI 25 April 2013
CHENNAI: More than 20 years after a bank fraud, a CBI court here has sentenced a 91-year-old man and his two sons, one of them a bank officer at the time, to jail terms ranging from three years to seven years. The bank officer-son was also asked to pay a fine of Rs 3 crore.
E M K S Siddharthar, XI additional special judge for CBI cases, found 91-year-old N Radhakrishnan, his two sons -- R Lakshmi Narasimhan and R Gurumurthy - guilty of cheating the Mylapore branch of the Indian Overseas Bank to the tune of 23 crore between 1989 and 1991. While Narasimhan was assistant manager of the branch then, Gurumurthy had floated a fictitious company that availed itself of overdraft and other facilities from the bank.
Sacked bank official gets 10-year jail-TOI 08.09.2013
NEW DELHI: A sacked bank official has been sentenced to ten years in jail by a special CBI court for misappropriating over Rs 40 lakh and diverting money for investing in shares. The court also imposed a fine of Rs 50 lakh on the 60-year-old official, Joginder Singh.
"...Corruption in any form is deplorable, but what the convict has done in the present case is an extreme case. He was a senior officer of the bank and was entrusted with the duty of dealing with the public money," special CBI judge Dinesh Kumar Sharma. The judge held Singh — who was posted as manager (loan) of Punjab & Sind Bank at Chandni Chowk branch — guilty under various provisions of the Prevention of Corruption Act.
Trio, including OBC officer, gets jail for Rs8 crore bank frau11.12.13
A special court imprisoned the three, including one officer from Oriental Bank of Commerce, for cheating the bank to nearly Rs8 crore through fraudulent manipulation of bank drafts
New Delhi: A former officer of Oriental Bank of Commerce (OBC) was sentenced to one-year imprisonment by a special court of Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) for cheating the bank to the tune of nearly Rs8 crore through fraudulent manipulations of bank drafts, reports PTI.
The judge also sent Vikaspuri-resident Uma Bhatla and Manjeet Kumar, Proprietor of Shivani Jewellers at Karol Bagh, to three-year in jail.
All the three accused were imposed with fine as well.
"The investigation revealed that Ram Kumar, the then officer of Oriental Bank of Commerce, used to provide stolen book of blank demand drafts to Uma Bhatla who used to fabricate and forge these drafts with high value amount and Manjeet Kumar used to get the amount of these drafts credited in his firm's bank account," a CBI spokesperson said.
The court has also declared two other persons, who are at currently absconding, as proclaimed offenders.
Two ex-SBI officials get 3-yr jail term for fraud-17.05.2013
Bangalore: Two former officials of State Bank of India and as many others have been convicted by a Special CBI court in a cheating case and sentenced them to three years of imprisonment with fine of Rs 2.20 lakh.
"The Special Judge for CBI cases, Bangalore, has convicted K Manjunath, the then Branch Manager, and H S Ganapathy, the then Deputy Manager, both of State Bank of India, besides K N Balagangadhara Sharma and S K Shetty (both private persons) and sentenced them to undergo three years of imprisonment with fine Rs 2.20 lakh," a CBI spokesperson said in a statement.
"The Special Judge for CBI cases, Bangalore, has convicted K Manjunath, the then Branch Manager, and H S Ganapathy, the then Deputy Manager, both of State Bank of India, besides K N Balagangadhara Sharma and S K Shetty (both private persons) and sentenced them to undergo three years of imprisonment with fine Rs 2.20 lakh," a CBI spokesperson said in a statement.
The CBI had filed a charge sheet after completion of probe against Manjunath and the three others for criminal conspiracy to cheating and other relevant provisions of Prevention of Corruption Act, it said.
"The allegations as per the charge sheet were that Manjunath had entered into criminal conspiracy with the other accused persons in the matter of cheque discounting facility extended to Easwari Marketing Services owned by Sharma," the statement said.
It said in furtherance of the said conspiracy during the period from July 4, 2003 to October 31, 2003, both the bank officers had purchased 183 cheques presented by Sharma as issued by the firm of Shetty and others.
"They exceeded their financial powers without any authorisation from the competent authority. The act of the accused persons had caused a wrongful loss of Rs 82.73 lakh (approx) to the State Bank of India and corresponding wrongful gain to the accused persons," the official said.
"The allegations as per the charge sheet were that Manjunath had entered into criminal conspiracy with the other accused persons in the matter of cheque discounting facility extended to Easwari Marketing Services owned by Sharma," the statement said.
It said in furtherance of the said conspiracy during the period from July 4, 2003 to October 31, 2003, both the bank officers had purchased 183 cheques presented by Sharma as issued by the firm of Shetty and others.
"They exceeded their financial powers without any authorisation from the competent authority. The act of the accused persons had caused a wrongful loss of Rs 82.73 lakh (approx) to the State Bank of India and corresponding wrongful gain to the accused persons," the official said.
Jail for ex-bank official over Rs.7 crore fraud
New Delhi, Nov 7 (IANS) A former bank official was sentenced to one year jail and two other accusedwere handed down three years' imprisonment each by a special court here in a Rs.7 crore corruption and cheating case.
Central Bureau Of Investigation (CBI) Special Judge Manoj Jain, in an order made available Wednesday, awarded one year's imprisonment to former Oriental Bank of Commerce official Ram Kumar, 65, under graft charges. The court also slapped a fine of Rs.20,000 on him.
The court also awarded three years' jail sentence to two co-accused Uma Bhatla and Manjeet Kumar Anand for the offence of cheating and slapped a fine of Rs.25,000 each on them.
"The prosecution has underlined and stressed that convict Manjeet Kumar Anand and Uma Bhatla had a pivotal role to play as Uma Bhatla was the key facilitator being instrumental in procuring the signatures of authorised signatories and convict Manjeet Anand tried to befool all by churning a concocted story," observed the court.
Top bank managers arrested for loans-for-bribes scam
New Delhi: The very top rung of some of India's public sector banks and financial institutions have been arrested by the CBI for allegedly sanctioning loans in return for bribes.
A total of eight people have been arrested by the CBI. Among them: Ramchandran Nair, the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of LIC Housing Finance; R. N. Tayal , General Manager of Bank of India; and Venkoba Gujjal , Deputy General Manager of Punjab National Bank.
"A private financial services company, its CMD and other associates were allegedly bribing senior officials of public sector banks and financial institutions for facilitating large scale corporate loans. They were also gathering confidential business information from financial institutions," said the CBI.
The private company involved is Money Matters, and three of its senior-most officials, including Chairman and Managing Director Rajesh Sharma have been arrested.
The men at Money Matters allegedly acted middlemen, bribing officials at public sector banks to get loans worth crores sanctioned for private firms, mainly real estate companies. The bank officials are also accused of selling confidential information.
During the day, the news of the raids and the arrests hit the stock prices of LIC Housing Finance and the Central Bank.
''These are cases of bribery. These are cases of corruption. Bribery by public officials, by people working in public sector organisations, and facilitating and sanctioning loans by taking money. And they have zeroed in on real-estate sector and certain developers who must have paid money to get loans sanctioned,'' said Deepak Parekh, the chairman of HDFC Bank.
The arrests come after a CBI investigation that covered five cities and lasted over a year.
Taped conversations referred to in the CBI's First Information Report (FIR) reveal incriminating details.
The CBI charges that Rajesh Sharma of Money Matters paid a 25-lakh bribe to RN Tayal at the Bank of India. In return, Tayal allegedly assured him of two loans worth 500 crores for two different companies.
"If you can't get a 300-crore project passed... what is the use of you being in this position?" asks Sharma brazenly.
In another case, Naresh Chopra of LIC Mumbai is accused of receiving 16 lakhs from Money Matters' Rajesh Sharma. Chopra allegedly traded confidential information on LIC investments into the Adani Group.
Fake bank loan documents result in Rs8,734 crore fraud-DNA
Public sector banks (PSBs) have lost money to the tune of Rs8,734 crore in the last three years on account of loans (personal, housing, corporate and others) disbursed based on fake documents submitted by borrowers. As many as 6,362 bank employees have been questioned for their involvement in the fraud.
Such frauds not only upset the profitability of banks, but also affect genuine borrowers as bank officials now take more precautions than before, thereby delaying the loan sanctioning process, said Rajesh Goyal, a former employee with a PSB in Delhi.
Banks report these cases under the “cheating and forgery” category. According to information obtained from the office of the ministry of finance under the Right to Information Act, 4,523 cases of fraud have been recorded by PSBs between 2010 and 2012. Many of these cases are being investigated by the CBI or the state police.
An official with a nationalised bank said in many cases, borrowers misuse the bank’s trust by submitting fake documents.
The official said officers are not equipped to cross-check the documents. “In fact, there are agents in the market who specialise in duplicating documents. With the emergence of new technologies, they (agents) have become experts in faking documents and their number is increasing,” he said.
The fraud amount has increased almost four times since 2010 (1,202 crore) to Rs5,359 crore in 2012. Experts said the whopping increase in the fraud amount is also a reason for growing non-performing assets in the banking sector.
Incidentally, such frauds have been taking place despite a circular issued by the RBI in March 2009, directing banks to report names of professionals who facilitated the perpetration of fraud to the Indian Banks’ Association (IBA). The IBA, in turn, prepares a document called “caution lists” of such professionals which is circulated among banks.
In March 2011, the government set up a central registry for maintaining records of registrations relating to property mortgaged with different lenders to minimise the fraud.
Loss manifold
The fraud amount has increased almost four times since 2010 (1,202 crore) to Rs5,359 crore in 2012. Experts said the increase in the fraud amount is also a reason for growing NPAs in the banking sector. Such frauds have been taking place despite a circular issued by the RBI.
Three arrested for Rs 60-crore cooperative bank loan fraud-
Indian Express 20.02.2013
The Economic Offences Wing (EOW) of Mumbai Police Crime Branch has made the first set of arrests in a scam in which fake loans worth over Rs 60 crore were disbursed by Mumbai District Central Cooperative Bank in Kurla, with hundreds of people to whom the loans were purportedly given being unaware of the transactions.
EOW officers said at least 23 cooperative credit societies were involved in the loan fraud, as they had forged bonds and customer identification papers to get loans sanctioned from the bank. The scam came to light in June last year, when around 400 residents of Asalfa in Ghatkopar and Kurla received letters from the bank asking them to repay loans they had never availed themselves of. The bank lodged a complaint with the EOW in July.
The probe has gathered momentum with the arrests on February 12 of Basavraj Chougule, Dayanand Thorat and Namdev Tapase, who are chairperson, treasurer and secretary respectively of Jivhala Cooperative Credit Society. More arrests are likely soon and 63 other accused being probed by the police, said EOW officers.
"The fraud involves around Rs 64 crore and was carried out by 23 cooperative credit societies in collusion with officials of the Mumbai District Central Cooperative Bank.," said police inspector S S Sohni of the banking unit of EOW.
Police said some of those duped had never applied for loans through the cooperative credit societies. Others had applied to a single cooperative credit society for a loan, but their papers were forged.
"The cooperative credit societies used forged bonds and identification papers of unsuspecting persons and secured loans. Proper verification of documents was not done by the bank and bank officials are suspected to have colluded in the fraud," said Sohni.
Additional Commissioner of Police (EOW) Rajvardhan said, "It is not possible for such fraud to have taken place without the collusion of some bank officials. This aspect is under investigation."
http://www.indianexpress.com/news/three-arrested-for-rs-60crore-cooperative-bank-loan-fraud/1076707/
No comments:
Post a Comment