Gurgaon: The DLF-II branch of Citibank has unearthed a fraud allegedly engineered by its relationship manager,Shiv Raj Puri,which initial estimates suggest could be of the order of Rs 300-350 crore.
The fraud,one of the biggest of its kind,came to light when the foreign bank launched an investigation into a certain set of suspicious transactions involving a few accounts in the Gurgaon branch.Subsequently,the banks assistant vice-president Binu Soman lodged a complaint with the local police,giving details of the plot.
A case of fraud has been registered against the manager and three of his close relatives.According to the police,Somans complaint states that Puri had got a joint account opened in the names of Prem Nath,Sehna Prem Nath,and Deeksha Puri in September last year.
Stunning Fraud
Relationship manager Shiv Raj Puri got joint account opened in names of 3 close relatives in Sept 2009 Forged circular in name of Sebi saying a high-returns scheme was only available at this particular branch Internal probe earlier this month by Citi exposed scam
Bank alerted by customer queries
Gurgaon: The DLF-II branch of Citibank has unearthed a fraud allegedly engineered by its relationship manager,Shiv Raj Puri,which initial estimates suggest could be of the order of Rs 300-350 crore.The fraud came to light when the foreign bank launched an investigation into a certain set of suspicious transactions involving a few accounts in the Gurgaon branch.Earlier this month the bank checked the joint account (no 5011666247) and realised that there were large cash transactions from this account.
Besides,the bank received inputs from some of its customers that the branch had a specific scheme that promised a very high interest rate to the investors,which was not the case.That made Citi suspicious and they started investigating the matter internally,said a senior police officer.
Soman has also submitted to the Gurgaon police that Puri had got a forged circular in the name of the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi),which claimed that the high-returns scheme was only available at this particular branch.
Puri allegedly showed this forged circular to win the trust of prospective customers and to convince them to invest,and he was successful in tapping some major players.Internal investigations later showed Sebi never issued such a circular and the regulator has given this in writing to the bank,said an investigating officer.
According to the sources,after getting the big deposits,Puri generated forged bank slips and statements to the duped customers.He then siphoned off the money into the stock market.Citibank has already informed the Reserve Bank of India and Sebi about the fraud.
A senior police officer investigating the case said that they have already seized 18 accounts,which have been opened in the name of the four accused.
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