Diamantaire Mehul Choksi has landed in Antigua and Barbuda, where he has been staying since 2018 after leaving India, after 51 days of custody in neighbouring Dominica for illegal entry which his lawyers claim was a kidnapping plan, local media reported. Choksi, 62, was given bail by Dominica High Court to travel back to Antigua for seeking medical help from a neurologist based there. After depositing bail money of EC Dollars 10,000, Choksi in a shirt and shorts flew back to Antigua in a chartered plane, Antigua News Room reported.
The local police on Tuesday registered an FIR naming Indian-born global CEO of the bank Vikram Pandit and 10 other officials in the Rs 300-crore (Rs 3 billion) Citibank fraud case.
The CBI filed a charge sheet against its four officials in a bribe-for-relief case involving the investigation against Frost International for allegedly committed a bank fraud of over Rs 4,300 crore, officials said.
As the new Tax Collection at Source (TCS) on foreign remittances is set to become applicable from October 1, travel agents' body TAAI has made a last-minute plea to the government, urging them to abolish the decision or defer its implementation until the next fiscal year to allow discussions on overseas tour packages. The government has raised the TCS on foreign remittances under the Liberalised Remittance Scheme (LRS) from 5 per cent to 20 per cent. This will be applicable to international travel, sending money abroad and other remittances.
The CBI recently approached the special court in Mumbai for issuance of LoR to conduct a probe to ascertain utilisation of funds received in the US-based bank accounts of Mallya and now defunct Kingfisher Airlines.
Even in this electronic age cheques are still the preferred mode of payment and banking transactions. Naturally, cheque frauds are rising too. But you can easily prevent them.
The PNB fiasco falls into a family line that involves non-fund limits - read contingent liabilities which are off-books. Harshad Mehta did it with bankers' receipts in 1992. Ketan Parekh exploited the ignorance of bankers who did not know the difference between a cheque and a pay-order. And the RBI blinked when it failed to insist the SWIFT platform be linked to the core banking solution. Raghu Mohan & Abhijit Lele trace the banking mess that was just waiting to happen.
The investigation pertains to a case against Pranav Jewellers, a partnership firm based in Tiruchirapalli, whom the ED raided on November 20 and claimed to have seized "unexplained" cash of Rs 23.70 lakh and some gold jewellery.
'India's emergence as a top crypto market comes despite a regulatory and tax environment that can be challenging for the industry to navigate.'
While PNB did not name the other lenders, Union Bank of India, Allahabad Bank and Axis Bank are said to have offered credit based on letters of undertaking (LOUs) issued by PNB. Foreign bank branches too are under investigation.
The broader Nifty declined by 73.90 points, or 0.71 per cent, to end at 10,378.40.
A forensic probe has been ordered into alleged irregularities by the department of financial services.
SBI has suggested that banks be exempted from handing over the complete forensic audit report to the borrower as it would hamper future investigation and forewarn the borrower by way of disclosure of confidential information.
Funds parked by Indian individuals and firms in Swiss banks, including through India-based branches and other financial institutions, jumped to a 14-year-high of 3.83 billion Swiss francs (over Rs 30,500 crore) in 2021 on a sharp surge in holdings via securities and similar instruments while customer deposits rose as well, annual data from Switzerland's central bank showed on Thursday.
'For years, the RBI has been warning banks on probable frauds in bank guarantees and advised them to exercise due care.' 'PSB staffers feel their jobs are secured, hence there is no need to be vigilant and exercise financial prudence.'
Mallya said, the ED on the one side and the banks on the other are fighting over the same assets.
Customers taking small and convenient steps and some degree of care and precaution while paying digitally will ensure safety and security from new threats that emerge every day, says Avinash Luthria
High net worth investors (HNIs) caught in the Rs 405-crore fraud at Citibank's DLF Phase-II branch in Gurgaon, have recovered their money, with the bank refunding the principal amount, pending investigations.
The Congress had on Thursday targeted Modi for the presence of Punjab National Bank fraud accused jewellery designer Nirav Modi in an Indian business delegation at the World Economic Forum in Davos.
Nearly two million e-mandates for recurring payments have been registered with banks and card networks after the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) made it mandatory from October 1 to take prior consent of a customer before debiting her account, sources in know of the matter said. Industry estimates peg the recurring transactions at approximately 2.5 per cent of the total volume of transactions, and about 1.5 per cent in terms of value. Of these, around 75 per cent of domestic recurring transactions, and about 85 per cent international recurring payments are below Rs 5,000.
JPMorgan Chase was "at the very centre" of Madoff Ponzi scheme
PMC Bank depositors have spent the last one year holding protests, meeting politicians, writing to various authorities in an effort to get their hard-earned money back.
The loss followed a massive fraud allegedly committed by Shivaraj Puri, a relationship manager at the bank's Gurgaon branch.
Choksi is wanted in India by the CBI and the Enforcement Directorate, which are probing the PNB fraud, the biggest banking scam in the country. India continues to pursue Choksi's return with the government of Antigua through diplomatic and legal channels.
There will be different ways of returning the money, depending on the profile of the depositors and the amount, predicts Tamal Bandyopadhyay.
Gujarat Congress leader Arjun Modhvadia has alleged that former minister of state for home Amit Shah had allegedly received a bribe of Rs 2.5 crore from stock market scamster Ketan Parekh to help him in a bank fraud case.
However, Jaitley's son-in-law had earlier issued a statement stating that his law firm had returned the retainership the moment they came to know that the company was involved in a scam.
Currently, the enforcement officers are making seizures of assets directly and indirectly connected to offenders, including jewelers Nirav Modi and Mehul Choksi in the Punjab National Bank fraud and Vijay Mallya in the Rs 9,000-crore IDBI loan case.
Why are DIIs holding such a high stake in Zee, which is beset with alleged governance issues? Perhaps they think Zee is a deep-value stock, observes Debashis Basu.
Banking technology start-up Zeta is the latest entrant to the unicorn club after raising $250 million in its Series C round from SoftBank Vision Fund 2. Sodexo participated as an additional minority investor in the round. Founded by serial entrepreneur and billionaire Bhavin Thurakia, the startup is now valued at $1.4 billion. It is the 14th company this year to cross the $1 billion valuation mark after Meesho, Cred, Pharmeasy, ShareChat, Moglix and others.
In the atmosphere created by the reaction to the PNB fraud and RBI's resolution framework, "don't lend, don't resolve" is bound to become the bankers' new mantra, says T T Ram Mohan.
Ask rediffGURU and tax expert Mihir Tanna your income tax-related questions.
Use of blockchain technology will ensure that banks will not be blindsided like in the case of the Nirav Modi-Mehul Choksi blowout at PNB, says Raghu Mohan.
Whether it is the virtual world or the physical one using your credit card with a few precautions go a long way in keeping it safe. Be cautious and do not become a statistic in the growing credit card fraud!
Billionaire Gautam Adani's group on Tuesday said it will prepay $130 million of debt as it looks to boost investor confidence post being targeted by a US short-seller. Adani Ports and Special Economic Zone, the ports company of the Adani Group, had last month floated a tender to buy back as much as $130 million of its July 2024 bonds and similar amounts in each of the next four as it looked to regain investor confidence by showing that its liquidity position is comfortable. In a stock exchange filing, APSEZ said an aggregae principal amount of $412.7 million was validly tendered.
In its letter, finance ministry has pointed to sections 35, 35A and 36 of the Banking Regulation Act, 1949, to highlight the powers and functions of the RBI as regulator
The court's observation came while granting bail to a person accused of running call centres in the country and defrauding United States citizens to the tune of about $20 million.
RBI has cited at least 10 areas where it has no control over PSBs.
RBI has advised banks to set up internal control systems to combat frauds, take pro-active measures, ensure credit card operations are safe, sound and profitable, preventive measures to combat frauds relating to skimming or duplication of cards.