After two days of investigations in the multi-crore financial fraud at Citibank, the Gurgaon police have found that the main accused, Shivraj Puri, who was working as the relationship manager, had opened 18 bank accounts in his and his family members' name.
The Supreme Court on Monday sought response of former ICICI Bank CEO-cum-MD Chanda Kochhar and her businessman husband Deepak Kochhar on a plea of the CBI challenging the interim bail granted to them by the Bombay high court in a loan fraud case. A bench of Justices Aniruddha Bose and Bela M Trivedi issued notice on the plea of the CBI and sought the response of the couple in three weeks.
The case is linked to an alleged fraud of over Rs 512 crore in a Panvel-based cooperative bank.
The order came days after Goyal told the court that he had "lost every hope of life and it would be "better if he died in jail" than living in such a situation.
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 Supreme Court's decision to allow borrowers a chance to be heard before their accounts are flagged as fraudulent by lenders is expected to result in several cases being reopened where the borrower is aggrieved because of such classification, bankers said. Still, the reopening of cases would not be automatic. A borrower who is aggrieved by the 'fraud' classification will have to approach the bank and consequently, the bank will take the necessary steps so that the apex court's order is followed in letter and spirit, they said.
The Reserve Bank of India also banned with immediate effect issuance of letters of comfort which, like LoUs, are used by importers to fund their overseas purchases.
The Enforcement Directorate has alleged that this is a bigger bank scam in volume than that of the Punjab National Bank fraud by fugitive diamantaires Nirav Modi and Mehul Choksi, as it involves fraud to the tune of about Rs 16,000 crore.
Despite the rating agency CARE withdrawing the ratings assigned to the bank facilities of FIPL "with immediate effect" following the receipt of a no-objection certificate (NOC) from the banks, Modi's company received uninterrupted letters of undertaking (LoUs) from PNB, which were honoured by other banks until a few weeks ago.
A 71-year-old man, whose dream of starting a business with his life savings got shattered as a bank negligently transferred his money to a stranger, has now been provided relief with the National Consumer Commission asking the Punjab and Sind Bank to pay him Rs 15.5 lakh.
When the police conducted a probe into it, a mega fraud worth over Rs 16,180 crore came to light, the official said quoting the FIR.
Choksi, along with his nephew and millionaire designer jeweller Nirav Modi, is being investigated by the ED for allegedly defrauding PNB, the country's second largest lender.
The combined market capitalisation of the 21 listed PSU banks declined by about Rs 76,000 crore to Rs 425,800 crore during the month.
The Supreme Court on Tuesday questioned the CBI over not objecting to repeated extension of the two-week interim bail granted in January this year to former ICICI Bank CEO-cum-MD Chanda Kochhar and her businessman husband Deepak Kochhar in a loan fraud case. A bench of Justices Aniruddha Bose and Bela M Trivedi asked Additional Solicitor General SV Raju, appearing for the CBI, as to why the probe agency did not resist repeated extension of interim bail granted to them by the Bombay high court on January 9. "This order is of January 9 and interim bail was granted for only two weeks. Why have you not resisted? Why are you permitting it to continue for such a long period?
Modi also reiterated that he cannot return to India due to safety concerns and also because his case has been politicised.
A new mobile banking 'Trojan' virus -- SOVA -- which can stealthily encrypt an Android phone for ransom and is hard to uninstall is targeting Indian customers, the country's federal cyber security agency said in its latest advisory.
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.
Cruelty by the husband (or his relatives) accounted for about 40 per cent of these cases. Delhi reported the highest number of cases of crimes against women (12,552) followed by Mumbai with over 5,000 cases.
The Enforcement Directorate on Wednesday continued raids for the seventh day as it visited 17 locations across the country, including four shell companies in Mumbai, even as the Income Tax department attached assets worth Rs 145 crore in the alleged Rs 11,400-crore Punjab National Bank fraud.
Official sources said while the accounts of Nirav Modi, the diamantaire under arrest in this case in London, have deposits of $3,74,11,596 (Rs 258 crore) while the accounts in the name of his sister Purvi Modi has deposits of 27,38,136 (Rs 24 crore).
The number of fraud cases reported by private banks outnumbered those by public sector banks for the second consecutive year.
They said the global arrest warrant against the Belgian national Nehal, 40, has been issued on charges of alleged money laundering that is being probed by the Enforcement Directorate.
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.
With the entire fraud amount becoming a non-performing asset, around 25 per cent of the bank's estimated net worth of Rs 40,000 crore could be affected.
A senior official of the Reserve bank of India has joined the Central Bureau of Investigation for providing the agency with financial management tips and inputs for investigating bank frauds and other economic offences.
One thing is for sure: It smacks of the regulator's lack of confidence in the bank's board, points out Tamal Bandyopadhyay.
Mastercard recently launched an authentication product called Identity Check Express that enables customers to verify transactions on their own.
The Enforcement Directorate on Wednesday said it has attached in London, Dubai and India assets worth Rs 538 crore of Jet Airways founder Naresh Goyal, his family members and companies as part of a money laundering investigation linked to an alleged bank loan fraud. The attached properties include 17 residential flats, bungalows and commercial premises. Located in London, Dubai and various cities in India, these properties are in the name of various companies like Jetair Private Limited and Jet Enterprises Private Limited, Goyal, his wife Anita, and son Nivaan, the central agency said in a statement.
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.
'I think of that young baby, still in her diapers, balancing with her arms held up by her mother, a Tamil woman wearing a salwar kameez and a dupatta, seated on a stoop,' recalls Aseem Chhabra.
RBL Bank is no Yes Bank. It's not fraught with fraud. It's a story of limitless ambition and greed for growth under a leader who doesn't want to give up, says Tamal Bandyopadhyay.
The opposition and the government are locking horns over the PNB and INX Media cases.
The opposition and the government are likely to lock horns over the PNB fraud.
The opposition and the government are likely to lock horns over the PNB fraud.
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.
'If you give your ID and password to somebody else, how can anybody blame the technology for that problem?'
The Delhi high court on Friday dismissed a plea by Mehul Choksi, an accused in the nearly USD 2 billion PNB scam, to conduct pre-screening of Netflix documentary Bad Boy Billionaires.
The arrest of ICICI Bank's former Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Chanda Kochhar and her husband Deepak Kochhar by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) in a loan fraud case was "without application of mind and due regard to the law", amounting to an "abuse of power", the Bombay high court has said. A division bench of Justices Anuja Prabhudessai and N R Borkar had on February 6 held the Kochhars' arrest as illegal and confirmed a January 2023 interim order passed by another bench granting them bail. In the order made available on Monday, the court said the CBI has been unable to demonstrate the existence of circumstances or supportive material based on which the decision to arrest was taken.
Loan against gold as a product is catching on fast. Let's keep the momentum going, but aim for sustainable growth. A few bad apples should not ruin the brunch, argues Tamal Bandyopadhyay.
'In restaurants, the waiter takes your card and then comes back with the machine. Don't allow that.' 'Let him come to you with the machine and then enter the card and the PIN yourself.'