by admin | May 25, 2021 | News, Politics
New Delhi : The CBI on Thursday said that it has registered a fresh case against diamantaire Nirav Modi for causing a loss of Rs 321 crore to Punjab National Bank (PNB) by availing different credit facilities between 2013 and 2017.
According to a Central Bureau of Investigation official, the case was registered after the bureau received a fresh complaint from the PNB on Sunday.
Former finance president of Nirav Modi’ Firestar Diamonds International Ltd. Vipul Ambani, chief finance officer Ravi Gupta, other directors and officials of the company, and unidentified public servants of the bank were also named in the complaint, they said.A
This is the second CBI case in which Nirav Modi has been named by the investigating agency.
In its complaint to the CBI, the bank alleged that during its internal investigation it had spotted circular transactions between the diamantaire promoted partnership firms namely — Solar Exports, Stellar Diamonds and Diamond R Us — and Firestar group of companies.
The head office of the bank had declared the accounts of Firestar Diamonds and Firestar International as fraud and reported it to the Reserve Bank of India on Sunday, it said.
Nirav Modi, along with his uncle Mehul Choksi of Gitanjali Group, has been accused of defrauding the PNB of Rs 12,600 crore, with Rs 1,300 crore being added to the fraud kitty on February 26.
The CBI had filed the first FIR in the scam on February 14 against Nirav Modi, his wife Ami, brother Nishal, Choksi and his firms Diamond R US, Solar Exports and Stellar Diamond.
Modi, his family and Choksi had left the country in early January.
The CBI filed a second FIR on February 15 over a Rs 4,886.72-crore fraud against Choksi’s Gitanjali Group.
To date, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) has carried out searches at over 198 locations across the country and seized properties worth nearly Rs 6,000 crore, while the CBI has arrested at least 19 persons in the case so far.
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | News, Politics
New Delhi : Minister of State in Prime Minister’s Office Jitendra Singh on Monday agreed to a CBI probe into the alleged question paper leak, irregularities and mass cheating in the combined graduate level exam of the Staff Selection Commission (SSC) held from February 17 to 21.
Congress MP Shashi Tharoor said he spoke with the minister in Parliament over the issue.
“Spoke to (Jitendra Singh) in Parliament today. He has agreed to a CBI inquiry on all the issues raised by the students protesting the SSC-CGL Mains papers ‘leak, conduct of exams’. I thank him for his willingness to listen to these legitimate demands (with) an open mind,” Tharoor tweeted.
The SSC, which conducts examination for subordinate services, on Sunday said it would recommend a CBI inquiry into the allegations. Nearly 190,000 candidates appeared for SSC CGL Tier II exam.
The examination on 17 February had be to cancelled after malpractices were reported at a Delhi exam centre where paper chits with answers were found in a toilet.
In Bhopal also, the SSC had to cancel the exam after candidates found out that several questions were already marked with answers.
Aspirants have been holding protests outside the SSC’s office at CGO Complex here for the last six days, demanding a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) investigation into the matter.
The Congress, Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and the BJP have come out in support of the candidates.
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | News, Politics
Karti Chidambaram
Chennai/New Delhi : Karti Chidambaram, son of former Finance Minister P. Chidambaram was arrested by the CBI from Chennai in connection with its ongoing probe into the INX media case, an official said on Wednesday.
The Central Bureau of Investigation official said that he was arrested from the Chennai airport after he returned from London. He will be brought to Delhi later in the day.
On May 15, 2017, the CBI had registered an FIR against Karti Chidambaram on charges of criminal conspiracy, cheating, accepting gratification by corrupt or illegal means, influencing public servants and criminal misconduct.
Karti Chidambaram allegedly received Rs 3.5 crore from the Mumbai-based INX media, now 9X Media, for helping it get Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB) clearance, when it was run by Peter and Indrani Mukerjea, both accused in the Sheena Bora murder case.
The FIR does not mention Chidambaram senior, though it said he cleared the FIPB approval for Rs 4.62 crore Foreign Direct Investment in the firm at an FIPB meeting on May 18, 2007.
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | Banking, Corporate, Corporate Buzz, News, Politics
New Delhi : The CBI on Sunday registered a bank fraud cases against a Uttar Pradesh based private sugar company, its top officials along with unknown bank officials for allegedly causing loss of Rs 109 crore to Oriental Bank of Commerce, officials said.
According to Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) officials, the Hapur-based Simbhaoli Sugars Ltd in 2011 fraudulently diverted funds received as loans for sugarcane farmers and self help groups.
CBI also conducted searches at offices of the company and residences of its officials at eight places, including one location each in Hapur and Noida, and six locations in Delhi.
“Searches are being conducted at eight premises including residences of Directors, factory, corporate office and registered office of the company in Delhi, Hapur and Noida,” CBI spokesperson Abhishek Dayal told IANS.
The agency has named the company’s Chairman and Managing Director, its Directors, CEO, Chief Financial Officer and unknown bank officials and other private persons, under charges of criminal conspiracy, cheating, forgery slapping sections under Prevention of Corruption Act for causing loss to the bank.
Officials said that the Bank sanctioned a loan amounting to Rs 148.60 crore in 2011 to the private company for financing individual, Joint Liability Groups, Self-Help Groups under the tie-up arrangement under the RBI Scheme to 5,762 sugarcane farmers supplying sugar produce to said private company during the period from January 25 to March 13, 2012. It has been alleged that the company has diverted funds for personal use.
According to complaint, the account turned Non Performing Asset (NPA) on March 31, 2015 and was later declared as alleged fraud by the bank to RBI on May 13, 2015 for an amount of Rs 97.85 crore.
It was further alleged that in addition to the existing NPA as on March 31, 2015, the bank, under multiple banking arrangements, had sanctioned another corporate loan of Rs 110 crore to the sugar company on January 28, 2015, to pay its outstanding loan of Rs 97.85 crore, and adjusted the total liability of Rs. 112.9 crore of said private company on June 30, 2016 by way of deposit of this new corporate loan.
The corporate loan, too turned into an NPA on November 29, 2016, thus resulting in its first outstanding loan of Rs 97.85 crore (as alleged fraud) and the corporate loan of Rs 109.08 crore (as fresh outstanding).
CBI is now investigating the matter, officials said.
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | News
By Rajnish Singh,
New Delhi : The practice of illegally issuing Letters of Understanding (LoUs) and Foreign Letter of Credits (FLCs) and then rolling them over to favour Nirav Modi and Mehul Choksi groups started in 2008 and continued till these were discovered in January this year, according to CBI officials.
The illicit activities resulting in fraud of Rs 11,300 crore occurred under the nose of top Punjab National Bank officials but they claimed to be unaware of the scam.
The revelation came to the fore during questioning by CBI officials of Rajesh Jindal, who was holding the charge of Mumbai-based PNB’s Brady House Branch Head between August 2009 and May 2011, Gokul Nath Shetty, a retired Deputy Manager from the same branch who retired in May 2017, Bechu B. Tiwari (Chief Manager, in charge of Forex Department), Yashwant Joshi (Scale II manager of Forex Department) and Prafful Sawant (Scale I officer, export).
The officials questions said they merely continued with the practice which is said to have started in 2008. It was not immediately clear who was in charge of the Forex Department when the illegal practice began.
The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) officials said the alleged multi-crore fraud by issuing LOUs and FLCs for sanction of loan to diamantire Nirav Modi and his uncle Mehul Choksi’s group of firms continued during Jindal’s tenure. Jindal, posted as GM Credit at PNB’s Head Office in New Delhi, was heading the second largest branch of the PNB when the practice of issuing the LoUs without sanctioned limits continued.
Jindal was arrested on Tuesday night after his day-long questioning in Mumbai. He was the 12th accused person to be arrested in the case so far. The CBI investigators had managed to get his custody till March 5 from the special CBI court on Wednesday.
Tiwari , Joshi and Sawant were also arrested on Monday for their alleged role in the scam and will remain in police custody till March 3.
All five PNB officials arrested so far were part of the forex department at the bank’s Brady House branch at the time of the fraud took place, said officials, adding these employees, in collaboration with the staff and associates of the firms headed by Nirav Modi and Choksi, commited wrongdoings for personal gains.
The first FIR in the scam registered on January 31 alleged that Shetty and a single window operator Manoj Kharat, during their forex department posting, fraudulently issued eight LoUs (which are a form of bank guarantee) equivalent to Rs 280 crore on February 9, 10 and 14, 2017, favouring the Nirav Modi companies to Allahabad Bank, Hong Kong, and Axis Bank, Hong Kong, without following prescribed procedure.
It added that the funds raised for import bills were not utilised for such purposes in many cases. Shetty and Kharat, arrested last week, are currently in CBI custody until March 3.
PNB’s employee Tiwari, in his capacity as Chief Manager, was to monitor Shetty’s transactions. However, Tiwari told the interrogators that during 2015-17, he did not monitor the fraudulent and illegal LoUs issued by Shetty.
An offcial close to the investigation said that Tiwari issued three circulars on February 19, 2016, February 7 and March 14, 2017, purportedly for the sake of keeping a check on the LoUs sent through the SWIFT code of the PNB’s Brady House Branch without any name. However, he neither followed it up nor took any steps to see why his instructions were not followed by Shetty, Joshi or Sawant.
“Tiwar’s deliberate acts of omissions led to the continuance of concealment and large scale liabilities of PNB to the foreign banks,” said the official.
The CBI filed the first FIR against Diamond R Us, Solar Exports and Stellar diamond whose partners have been named as Nirav Modi, his brother Nishal, uncle Mehul Choksi and wife Ami– who left the country earlier in early January. The second FIR was filed on February 15 for an amount of Rs 4,886.72 crore against the Gitanjali group headed by Choksi.
CBI officials said details of additional amounts (of around Rs 6,400 crore) would be added to the first FIR.
The second FIR also names 11 directors of the three Cholksi owned Gitanjali group companies– Gitanjali Gems Ltd, Gili India Ltd and Nakshatra Brands Ltd.
The PNB fraud came to light on January 16 when officials of Nirav Modi companies approached the bank for buyers’ credit without collateral saying they had been getting such facility for years. The bank said that the official who had earlier allowed such illegal facility through LoUs and FLCs had retired by then, and on checking by officials, the whole fraud unravelled.
(Rajnish Singh can be contacted at rajnish.s@ians.in)
—IANS
