The High Court of Justice in London has rejected a fresh bail petition filed by diamantaire Nirav Modi, who is wanted in India in connection with the Rs 13,000 crore Punjab National Bank (PNB) fraud case.
A court in Antwerp on Friday cleared the extradition of fugitive diamantaire Mehul Choksi, noting that his arrest by the Belgian authorities on India's request was valid, officials in the know of the development said.
The bail plea of fugitive diamonds trader Mehul Choksi, wanted in India in connection with over Rs 6300-crore fraud in the Punjab National Bank (PNB), has again been turned down by a court of appeal in Belgium, just ahead of his extradition hearing before a court in that country, officials said. The court rejected the appeal on strong reasons conveyed by the CBI to the Belgian prosecution that Choksi had escaped from many jurisdictions earlier as well to evade legal proceedings and may flee to another country if let out on bail, they said.
Nehal Modi, the younger brother of fugitive diamantaire Nirav Modi, has been arrested in the US based on extradition requests from the Enforcement Directorate and the CBI.
Absconding diamond jeweller Mehul Choksi has been detained in Belgium following an extradition request by Indian probe agencies for his alleged involvement in the Rs 13,000 crore PNB bank loan 'fraud' case, official sources said Monday. The action against the diamantaire was taken on Saturday.
Companies owned by fugitive diamantaire Mehul Choksi have allegedly siphoned off over Rs 6,344.96 crore from the Punjab National Bank (PNB) using fraudulent letters of undertaking and foreign letters of credit, a CBI investigation into the scam has detected. The findings were submitted by the CBI in a supplementary chargesheet filed before a special court in Mumbai last week, where the agency said the PNB was conned by its employees who were allegedly hand in gloves with Choksi and his company executives and who facilitated the scam as part of a criminal conspiracy. The PNB officials at the bank's Brady House branch in Mumbai issued 165 letters of undertaking (LoUs) and 58 foreign letters of credit (FLCs) during March-April 2017, against which 311 bills were discounted.
The ED has filed a fresh chargesheet against absconding jeweller Mehul Choksi, his wife Priti and others under the anti-money laundering law in connection with the over Rs 13,000-crore PNB loan fraud case, officials said on Monday. This is the first prosecution complaint filed by the central agency against Choksi's wife Priti Pradyotkumar Kothari. She has been charged by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) with "helping her husband in layering of the proceeds of crime".
The Enforcement Directorate has attached assets worth over Rs 14 crore belonging to the Gitanjali Group and its promoter and jeweller Mehul Choksi, one of the prime accused in the alleged over Rs 13,000 crore PNB loan fraud case. The properties attached, under the anti-money laundering law, include a flat measuring 1,460 sq feet located at O2 Tower in Goregaon area of Mumbai, gold and platinum jewellery, diamond stones, necklaces made of silver and pearls, watches and a Mercedes Benz car, the ED said in a statement. A provisional order for attachment has been issued under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) for the assets worth a total Rs 14.45 crore that are in the name of Gitanjali Group of companies and its director Mehul Choksi, it said.
The Enforcement Directorate on Wednesday said it has attached fresh assets worth Rs 29.75 crore of fugitive diamond trader Nirav Modi under the anti-money laundering law. A provisional order has been issued under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) to attach these assets that are in the form of bank deposits, land, and buildings, it said in a statement.
He escaped the country in the first week and took the oath of allegiance in Antigua on January 15
Bank provides for Rs 7,178 crore, or 50 pf of the total amount of the Rs 14,356 crore scam, in the fourth quarter of 2017-18. The remaining amount will be covered in the three quarters of the current fiscal year.
PNB issued a formal appointment letter to Belgium-based consultancy firm BDO
'PNB had confirmed compliance with the RBI's prescription in its circular of August 3, 2016, which has now turned out to be factually incorrect,' Minister of State for Finance Shiv Pratap Shukla said in Rajya Sabha on Tuesday.
ICAI intends to investigate the chartered accountants of PNB but the bank allegedly refuses to give the information sought.
The Reserve Bank has permitted PNB to make provisions against the fraud amount.
The government has given sanction for prosecution against PNB executive director Sanjiv Sharan as part of the clean up exercise in the system.
Govt tells PSBs to integrate banking systems, rotate staff as a policy
ED said the United Kingdom's home secretary recently referred India's request for extraditing the tainted businessman to a court for initiating legal proceedings against him.
About 40 per cent of the money lost by banks in the PNB scam and the fraud linked to fugitive businessman Vijay Mallya's defunct Kingfisher Airlines has been realised by way of sale of shares seized under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), the Enforcement Directorate said on Wednesday.
Fugitive diamantaire Nirav Modi's sister and brother-in-law have "turned approvers" in the over $2 billion PNB fraud case against him and they will help the Enforcement Directorate confiscate assets worth Rs 579 crore, including Swiss bank deposits, the agency said on Thursday. Forty-nine-year-old Nirav Modi, who is currently lodged in a London jail, his uncle Mehul Choksi and others are being probed by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in the Punjab National Bank (PNB) money laundering case since 2018. The diamond merchant's younger sister Purvi Modi (47) is a Belgian national while her husband Maiank Mehta is a British citizen. They are stated to be based abroad and have never joined the probe.
FinMin finally sacked executive directors K V Brahmaji Rao and Sanjiv Sharan on January 18. The bank's board, however, had felt they had no criminal intent and it was a case of 'casual oversight'
Both Purvi Deepak Modi and Neeshal Modi are accused in the $2-billion scam allegedly orchestrated by their elder brother Nirav Modi and uncle Mehul Choksi in Punjab National Bank, they said.
The 12,000-page charge sheet further claimed that a similar fraud was detected in 2016 following which the RBI took up the issue and issued circulars to all banks.
The CBI on Wednesday directed him to contact the embassy of India in a country where he is staying so that his travel to India can be arranged
The jewellers and companies linked to Nirav Modi and Mehul Choksi had allegedly colluded with PNB officers to obtain fake bank guarantees to get loan from overseas branches of Indian banks including Allahabad Bank, Axis Bank and UCO Bank.
According to ED sources Sunil Mehta said the fraud took place due to "systemic failure" and "procedural lapses", owing to lack of interface or proper links between the core banking software and the SWIFT interbank messaging system.
The latest fraud is a failure of management supervision and accountability, as no bad debt was generated and no cash was involved
The Enforcement Directorate Friday said it has attached gems, jewellery and bank deposits worth Rs 253.62 crore of some Hong Kong-based companies of fugitive diamond merchant Nirav Modi as part of a money laundering probe. Some assets of Nirav Modi group of companies in Hong Kong were identified in the form of gems and jewelleries lying in private vaults and bank balances in accounts maintained there and these have been provisionally attached under sections of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), the federal probe agency said in a statement. The amount kept in banks amounts to $30.98 million and Hong Kong dollars 5.75 million, which is equivalent to Rs 253.62 crore (as on July 22, 2022), it said.
The Enforcement Directorate, which continued its searches against Modi, Choksi and their companies for the fourth day on Sunday , is also moving to attach at least two dozen immovable properties under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act.
The agency has so far seized diamonds, gold jewellery and other precious stones worth Rs 5,716 crore in the case and summoned Modi and Choksi, the promoter of Gitanjali Gems, to appear before it on February 23 at its Mubai zonal office.
The Income Tax Department on Tuesday also raided 20 premises linked to Gitanjali Gems promoter Mehul Choksi and suspected shell firms in connection with an alleged tax evasion case against them, official sources said.
The notice, which acts as an international arrest warrant, states that Purvi Deepak Modi, 44, is required on charges of "money laundering".
It further asked the government to make suitable arrangements for smooth functioning of the bank.
The legal procedure of extradition of an accused takes its own time and Indian investigators, both from the CBI and ED, are tracking the case.
The I-T department also attached 34 bank accounts and fixed deposits, valued at Rs 1.45 crore, of the Gitanjali group.
Theoretically, Modi, who understood corporate finance, committed no crime by raising debt to fund a growing business. In fact, he did a tidy job of it, but his operation started to see the ground underneath it give way in January 2018. A fascinating excerpt from Pavan C Lall's Flawed: The Rise And Fall Of India's Diamond Mogul Nirav Modi.
A large number of public sector bank employees, as a matter of routine, do not "take" promotions so that they are not transferred out of their hometowns. The eastern region is famous for this, but it is a common practice everywhere, says Shyamal Majumdar.
The billionaire jeweller, who has fled the country, in the letter also disagreed with the loan default amount of Rs 11,400 crore and pegged the amount his companies owe to the bank at under Rs 5,000 crore.
The agency on Monday questioned three general managers of the Punjab National Bank who have handled the -International Banking Division and Treasury department of the bank, officials said without revealing their identity.
The CBI has filed a fresh case against absconding diamantaire Mehul Choksi, wanted along with his nephew Nirav Modi in a loan fraud case of Rs 13,500 crore, for allegedly inflating the value of diamonds and jewellery pledged to get Rs 25 crore loan from IFCI, officials said on Monday. The CBI has booked Mehul Choksi, his company Gitanjali Gems and valuers Surajmal Lallu Bhai and Co, Narendra Jhaveri, Pradip C Shah and Shrenik Shah, they said. The central agency has acted on a complaint from Industrial Finance Corporation of India (IFCI) Ltd alleging that Choksi had approached it in 2016 seeking Rs 25 crore working capital loan for which he had pledged shares and gold and diamond jewellery.
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