Investigations into the ₹645-crore IDFC First Bank fraud case revealed that bank officials, in connivance with government employees and private individuals had allegedly routed the embezzled money through multiple shell entities and transferred it to various jewellers, who provided cash in exchange for these banking transactions.
The revelations came two days after the Enforcement Directorate (ED) made the third arrest in the case, in which funds from the bank accounts of Haryana government, Chandigarh administration and two private schools based in Chandigarh and Panchkula, were allegedly siphoned off using fake fixed deposit receipts (FDRs) and forged documents. Chandigarh-based hotelier and realtor Vikram Wadhwa, who was in judicial custody after being questioned by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), was taken into ED custody on May 29, the probe agency revealed on Monday.
The agency said Wadhwa received over ₹70 crore of the crime proceeds in his personal accounts, in addition to the cash generated from the embezzled funds, which he used to purchase several immovable properties using the proceeds.
Various intermediary shell entities such as Capco Fintech services and Swastik Desh projects among others have received embezzled funds directly from various accounts of the government. Hundreds of crores of rupees were transferred to jewellers from these intermediary shell entities and these jewellers provided cash against this banking transaction.
The main accused, Ribhav Rishi, then an employee with IDFC bank, along with his associates had further distributed the cash to various government officials and businessmen including Wadhwa. Efforts are on to trace the complete money trail and identify other beneficiaries and properties acquired, the probe agency said.
Rishi, along with another bank employee Abhay Kumar, had been arrested by the ED on May 11. Both are now in judicial custody.
Former deputy vice-president of Kotak Mahindra Bank Pushpendra Singh has been named the mastermind of Kotak Mahindra Bank Fraud. According to the anti-corruption bureau of Panchkula, ₹145 crore of Panchkula MC’s funds were embezzled. The probe under Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) has so far revealed that a Kotak Mahindra’s customer relationship manager Dileep Kumar Raghav, along with Singh and MC senior accounts manager Vikas Kaushik had opened two bank accounts through forged and fake authorisation documents in the name of Panchkula MC. The MC funds available in the genuine accounts were transferred to unauthorised and illegal accounts using forged and fake fund migration authorisation letters. The illegally transferred funds were utilised for further transfer to financiers Rajat Dahra and Swati Tomar among others. Singh was arrested on Monday and produced in court. ED has been granted custody of him till June 9.