The ED has charged the accused under various sections of the Indian Penal Code and the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) in the over Rs 13,000 crore PNB scam case.
Frozen mutual funds and shares worth Rs 86.72 crore belong to Choksi and his group, and the rest are owned by the Modi group.
The number of cyberfraud cases has skyrocketed from 2,677 in 1999-2000 to 29,082 in FY24 -- more than a 10-fold increase. The RBI pegs digital payment frauds at Rs 1,457 crore in FY24, up more than five times in a year. It's not just the number of frauds. What's alarming is the growing sophistication of the fraudsters, exposing the vulnerabilities within the financial system, observes Tamal Bandyopadhyay.
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.
"Photographs (Nirav Modi Davos photo) mean nothing. Even you people are sitting with me and we being photographed and if somebody does anything will I be linked?" he told reporters.
There can't be a parallel inquiry and parallel monitoring by the courts, Attorney General K K Venugopal told the court.
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.
The diamantaire's counsel said there is a vigilance manual circular that the consortium can lodge only one FIR. Each consortium member cannot lodge separate FIRs, he said.
Experts say the recent Rs 14,000-crore PNB fraud could have been avoided had there been an integration of PNB's CBS with its SWIFT system
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.
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 notice, which acts as an international arrest warrant, states that Purvi Deepak Modi, 44, is required on charges of "money laundering".
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.
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.
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 latest fraud is a failure of management supervision and accountability, as no bad debt was generated and no cash was involved
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.
Vipul Chitalia was apprehended at Mumbai airport and brought to the CBI office at the Bandra-Kurla Complex in Mumbai for questioning, he said, but did not divulge any other details about Chitalia's alleged role in the PNB fraud.
The challenge before the management is ensuring simultaneous disclosure of key information to stock exchanges and investigating agencies.
Diamantaire Mehul Choksi, a key accused in the multi-crore PNB scam, has told a special court in Mumbai that he hasn't been able to return to India "due to reasons beyond his control" and hence cannot be declared a "fugitive economic offender". The accused has claimed that he didn't leave India to avoid criminal prosecution nor is he refusing to return to the country. He said his passport has been suspended by Indian authorities.
It further said that the loan application form should be suitably modified to incorporate passport details of borrowers.
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.
"The Reserve Bank of India... has levied an aggregate penalty of Rs 10 million (Rs 1 crore) on the bank for non-compliance of regulatory directions observed during assessment of implementation of SWIFT-related operational controls," Yes Bank said in a regulatory filing.
What is digital house arrest? It is a tactic cybercriminals use to confine victims to their homes and scam them, explains Tamal Bandyopadhyay.
The BJP chief said the ED and the CBI have taken prompt action in the Nirav Modi case.
The problem here is that internal auditors are good at accounts, but they are not trained to track foreign exchange transactions
Markets regulator Sebi has ordered the attachment of bank accounts and shares and mutual fund holdings of fugitive businessman Mehul Choksi to recover dues totalling Rs 5.35 crore. The latest decision has been taken after Choksi failed to pay the fine imposed on him in October 2022 by Sebi in a case pertaining to indulging in fraudulent trading in the shares of Gitanjali Gems Ltd. Choksi, who was the chairman and managing director as well as part of the promoter group of Gitanjali Gems, is the maternal uncle of Nirav Modi, both of whom are facing charges of defrauding state-owned Punjab National Bank (PNB) of more than Rs 14,000 crore.
Officials said the Enforcement Directorate along with the Central Bureau of Investigation launched fresh searches on March 22 at the Samudra Mahal luxury residential flats of Modi in Mumbai's Worli area which resulted in the recovery of fresh valuables.
It further asked the government to make suitable arrangements for smooth functioning of the bank.
'If you give your ID and password to somebody else, how can anybody blame the technology for that problem?'
The two diamond traders, who are said to have left the country before criminal cases were registered, had failed to appear before the ED, promoting the agency to move the PMLA court for issuance of NBWs against them.
The plea also sought a directive for the constitution of a committee of experts who would find the details of bad debt cases in the country.
Historically, the RBI has tried to keep the crooks at bay by issuing a circular a day. What it needs is more onsite supervision. Merely checking high-frequency data with the help of technology is insufficient, notes Tamal Bandyopadhyay.
The issuance of NBWs by a court also opens door of seeking Red Corner notices against both of the accused from the Interpol.
Nirav Modi, the fugitive diamond merchant wanted in India to stand trial on fraud and money laundering charges, on Thursday suffered another setback in his legal battle against his extradition as the high court in London denied him permission to appeal against his extradition order in the UK Supreme Court. In a judgment order pronounced at the Royal Courts of Justice in London, Lord Justice Jeremy Stuart-Smith and Justice Robert Jay ruled that "the Appellant's (Nirav Modi) application for permission to appeal to the Supreme Court is refused".
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.
Jaitley slammed lack of ethics in certain sections of businesses and said multiple layers of auditing system chose to either look the other way or did a casual job.
Banks say they themselves red-flagged the transactions to RBI. It must be noted that these transactions are not outright evidence of fraud or proof of nefarious activities.
Modi, 48, is currently living in a three-bedroom flat occupying half of a floor of the landmark Centre Point tower block, where rent is estimated to cost 17,000 (Rs 15 lakh) a month, The Telegraph reported.
Breaking silence over the Rs 12,967 crore scam at Punjab National Bank, he said: "I have chosen to speak today to convey that we at the Reserve Bank of India also feel the anger, hurt and pain at the banking sector frauds and irregularities."
