The fraud was operated from call centres in India to defraud hundreds of elderly and vulnerable people in the US, CBI officials said.
If there were an Olympics for bank frauds in India, Rishi Agarwal, founder and former chairman of ABG Shipyard Ltd, a nephew of the Ruia brothers of the Essar group, would bag the gold, pushing Nirav Modi to his right, says Tamal Bandyopadhyay.
The entire amount is to be provided for four quarters.
Despite recent developments that have accelerated the impending extradition of fugitive diamantaire Nirav Modi, who has been in custody in London's Wandsworth Prison for over two years, the last month has seen his uncle Mehul Choksi dominate the headlines instead with his circus-like exhibition in the Caribbean that has involved red herrings such as a "girlfriend", to whom his wife seemed to have no objection, and possibly concocted stories of being kidnapped and manhandled. Choksi was widely regarded as Modi's Svengali in Mumbai when he returned from Belgium to expand his business. He had fled to Antigua well before news around how Modi finagled thousands of crores from Punjab National Bank (PNB) and other institutions through a series of allegedly coordinated and fraudulent actions involving letters of undertaking, or LoUs.
The syndicate used "stooge" bank accounts and shell companies to transfer the largest amount linked to a single case recorded in the city, the Customs and Excise Department of Hong Kong said.
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.
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.
An Indian national from Gurgaon has been sentenced to three years in federal imprisonment on charges of call centre fraud that intended to cheat Americans of millions of dollars, a US attorney said.
Modi also reiterated that he cannot return to India due to safety concerns and also because his case has been politicised.
Former Spanish tennis star Arantxa Sanchez Vicario has been given a suspended jail term for fraud, a court in Barcelona said on Wednesday.
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.
'Avoid rushing into any financial transactions or disclosing personal information.'
The probe, being conducted under various sections of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, is against the Kallal Group and the UK-based Lyca group and its Indian companies Lyca Productions and Lyca Hotels, it said.
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.
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 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).
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 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.
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.
Funds parked by Indian individuals and firms in Swiss banks, including through India-based branches and other financial institutions, declined by 11 per cent in 2022 to 3.42 billion Swiss francs (nearly Rs 30,000 crore), annual data from Switzerland's central bank showed on Thursday.
The highest-ever goods and services tax (GST) evasion has been done by the online money gaming industry.
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 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.
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.
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.
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.
'Many do not have robust business models, and their prospects of survival and long-term growth are poor.'
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.
For Indian parents, sending a child abroad for a three-year degree could deplete 48% of their retirement savings, while a four-year degree may consume up to 64%.
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.
'If you give your ID and password to somebody else, how can anybody blame the technology for that problem?'
Mastercard recently launched an authentication product called Identity Check Express that enables customers to verify transactions on their own.
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.
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.
One thing is for sure: It smacks of the regulator's lack of confidence in the bank's board, points out Tamal Bandyopadhyay.
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.
