It’s not been a month old for Syndicate scam (Syndicate Bank, got embroiled in a bribe-for-loan scandal running into Rs 8,000 crore).
Now one more Bank Scam…
The amount involved is expected to be a whopping 1000 crores.
A glimpse on ‘what happened’
The perpetrators of the fraud misused the cash credit facilities available against Fixed Deposits.The perpetrators of the crime approached entities like South Indian Education Society, Mumbai Metropolitan Regional Development Authority, PG Group of Companies and Sant Rohidas Charmakar Mahamandal among others, asking them to open fixed deposits with public sector banks through middlemen. In return, these entities were promised a higher rate of interest on the FDs.
Once the FD was opened, the accused gave fake receipts to the entities and used the original ones to open accounts with forged documents. They then transferred the overdraft amount to their accounts using the real-time gross settlement system facility.
These individuals and middlemen in collusion with bank officials carried out fixed deposit scams at public sector banks including Dena Bank, UCO Bank, Bank of India, Vijaya Bank, Oriental Bank of Commerce, Central Bank of India, Punjab National Bank, State Bank of Bikaner and Jaipur and Dhanalakshmi Bank.
What’s the Dena Bank scam?
A branch manager mobilised fixed deposits (FDs) to the tune of Rs 256.49 crore from seven corporates. This was mobilised using middlemen. All formalities relating to opening FDs were done by middlemen. Once the FD was raised, fake Fixed deposit receipts (FDRs) were sent to the organisations. The bank will retain the original FDR. The middlemen will then propose sanctioning of loans to some other organisations against the original FDRs. Loans are then disbursed in the third party accounts of these organisations.
What’s the OBC scam?
Misappropriation of funds to the tune of Rs 180 crore was reported. This amount was deposited by an organisation as fixed deposit (FD). As the organisation didn’t have an account in the branch, the branch manager transferred the funds to the sundry account. A sundry account is where the deposits of those who do not have an account in the branch is parked. FDs mostly get deposited here for the period till the account is opened. This money was again deposited in the current account, which, banking experts say, is wrong and must have been done to beef up the low interest deposit of the bank and fudge figures to meet the current account target. From here, the money was routed to third-party accounts.
