Bank fraud case: Hyderabad court convicts 5 including 3 bankers for money laundering

New Delhi, Feb 21 (PTI) A special PMLA court in Hyderabad has convicted five people, including three bankers, of money laundering charges in a loan fraud of over Rs 2 crore at the State Bank of India (SBI), the ED said Tuesday.

They have been sentenced to undergo rigorous imprisonment of seven years and slapped with a fine of Rs 50,000 each, the federal probe agency said in a statement.

The court of Metropolitan Sessions Judge has held T Jayasree and M Chinna (employees of Chakkilam Trade House Limited) and three bank officials — S Narasimhan, A Sesibhushana Rao and S Arogyam– guilty under sections of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).

The court has also directed the company to pay a fine of Rs 1 lakh.

The money laundering case of the Enforcement Directorate (ED) was filed after taking cognisance of a CBI FIR. The ED filed the charge sheet before the court in December, 2013.

“Chakkilam Trade House Limited (then represented by its Director Late Chakkilam Raghuram) had fraudulently availed loan from SBI on the basis of fabricated financial statements, board resolution and documents showing higher turnover and fake MoUs with various parties showing business dealings,” the Enforcement Directorate said.

An amount of Rs 2,08,50,000 was sanctioned by SBI and it was “misappropriated and laundered”, it said.

The properties, which were mortgaged with the banks for the loan, were already sold by the company and its promoters, the agency said.