CBI books Kolkata-based firm in over Rs 4,000 crore bank fraud

Kolkata (West Bengal) [India], December 23 (ANI): The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Friday said it registered a case against a Kolkata-based private company and others including its promoters or directors, unknown public servants and others, in connection with an over Rs four thousand crore bank fraud.
The agency said searches were conducted at 16 locations including Nagpur, Mumbai, Ranchi, Kolkata, Durgapur, Ghaziabad and Vishakhapatnam, among others. The probe agency said the case was filed based on a complaint from the Union Bank of India of a bank fraud of about Rs 4,037.87 crore to the consortium of 20 banks.

The Union Bank of India, the lead lender of the consortium, declared the account as non-performing assets (NPA) on September 30, 2013, and subsequently, the other member consortium banks also classified the said account as NPA, according to the CBI statement. The accounts of the said borrower company were declared as fraud on October 25, 2019.

Between 2009 and 2013, it was alleged that the said borrower had submitted manipulated project cost statements and also diverted the bank funds. It was also alleged that the trade receivables mainly including transactions to related parties and funds were diverted to a web of various companies which were dummy accounts, the probe agency said, adding accordingly, the borrower was able to siphon off the funds.

CBI said searches were conducted at 16 locations, including Nagpur, Mumbai, Ranchi, Kolkata, Durgapur, Ghaziabad, Vishakhapatnam, etc, which led to the recovery of incriminating documents and articles, and added that further investigation was underway.