State Bank of Sikkim fraud Swindlers Handed Over to West Bengal Police

Gangtok, Nov. 28: Two men, arrested for trying to swindle a nationalised bank out of crores of rupees, were brought from Sikkim to Birpara today and remanded in 10 days’ police custody by the additional chief judicial magistrate.

Amit Das of Barasat in North 24-Parganas and Subrata Banerjee of Cossipore, Calcutta, had been arrested by Sikkim police in Gangtok while trying to pull off a scam in another bank there.

In a complaint filed with Birpara police on October 28, the manager of the Central Bank of India’s Birpara branch, Pradeep Sarkar, said Das had opened an account in his branch. “On October 16, Sarkar received a phone call from his counterpart in the Burrabazar branch in Calcutta that Das had produced a letter of credit issued by the Birpara branch and wanted to withdraw Rs 48.7 lakh. He, however, fled the scene when the accounts were being verified,” said the assistant public prosecutor, Samir Majumdar.

“On November 21, Sarkar received another call from the Central Bank India’s branch in Vadodara saying Das had produced another letter of credit issued by his branch and wanted to withdraw Rs 1.27 crore. The branch was told not to make any payment, but the duo disappeared,” said the public prosecutor.

Sources in the Birpara police station said police intelligence had come to know about the arrests and asked the Sikkim police to hand them over.

A letter of credit is issued by a bank to its customer against his/her assets, a police officer explained. “Scamsters use these banking instruments to withdraw large sums of money. However, it is most likely that the letter of credit is fake,” added the officer.

Pradeep Dutta, the subdivisional police officer of Alipurduar, said more about the duo would be revealed after interrogation.

Investigations still on SBS fraud attempt, says Crime officials

GANGTOK, November 23: Overruling the speculations of high hand involvement in the recent case of multi-crore scam, the Criminal Investigation Division wing of Sikkim Police today gave a clean chit to State Bank of Sikkim for not having any idea on the whole economic ordeal.
Addressing a press conference here at Police Head quarter on Friday, the Senior Superintendent of Police, Crime Branch ST Bhutia said, although the investigation is still on, there has been no substantiation of any bank employees or any other high profile people of Sikkim involved in the case.
It may be recalled here that the CID wing of Sikkim police had arrested three persons including one local in an attempt to fraud State Bank of Sikkim amounting to rupees Rs. 80 crores.
After a thorough investigation, the CID team has found that one of the alleged arrested in the money laundering case, Gautam Das is still wanted at Birpara Police station for the similar charge. The documents confiscated by the CID team from one of the hotels in the Capital where the culprits were staying reveal that a similar proposal had been put at Central Bank of India, Birpara Branch and also at Punjab Sindh Bank, Asansol amounting to Rs 100 crores and Rs. 97 crores respectively in the name of Godraise International Ltd.
The team has also found three fake stamps of the forged company from the hotel room.
The CID super informed the master mind behind the whole economic offence Gautam Das had opened an account with the fake name Amit Das in the said banks.
After the investigation it was learnt that the money launders were able to withdraw Rs 7 lakhs from Punjab Sindh Bank but could not make any transactions from CBI, Birpara.
The fled money launders then made SBS a soft target using the same modus operandi. Four persons Sunil Rai, Subroto Banerjee, Gautam Das and Sudip Malik have been arrested under sections 420/423, 120 B and 5(1) 34 of the Indian Penal Code for fraud and submission of forged documents.
“We are still interrogating the arrested four persons and are hopeful that they will spill more beans on the case,” Mr. Bhutia told reporters.

State Bank of Sikkim (SBS) denies any role in multi-crore fraud

Gangtok, November 22: The State Bank of Sikkim (SBS) refutes to the allegation against its involvement in multi-crore scam. The Chief General Manager of Bank refutes to allegation mad over the local media since past few week, he said there is no any connection of Bank nor any employees of Bank are involved.
“The Bank would like to take this opportunity to assure the public in general that the accounts which were mentioned in the news reports were opened by the Bank only after following the “Know Your Customer KYC” norms prescribed by the Reserve Bank of India. The account holder had filled up the forms and submitted the requisite supporting documents and the account was opened only after the scrutiny of the documents supplied by the customers.
Adding to this , the new applicants were also introduced to the Bank by our existing account holders. Further contrary to report in certain newspapers that the account were started with Rs 500 only, the Bank would like to state that the “Current Account are started with an initial deposite of Rs 5000 and not Rs 500,” read the press statement. SBS has further clarified that the issuance of cheques book to the holder is done to facilitate the smooth operation of transaction of the account. “ This is normal procedure followed by the Bank in all Current Account maintained with us. The cheques issued to the account holders by the Bank become their personal property and the account holders are themselves responsible for the cheques issued by them. The Bank does not have any say in the amount filled in by the account holders and only upon the presentation of the cheque before the teller can verify for the bank vouch for its authenticity.
Reacting on the newspaper reports about the statement on the reverse side of the cheques on behalf of the SBS making assurance to fulfill the obligation and honoring the cheques on the due date i.e in November 2014, the Bank claims that these cheques were never presented to Bank nor was signed by any officials nor stamped.
“Even if these cheques were presented to Bank officials for signature and seal, it would have still not have been completed since it is not in policy Bank to endorse such cheques in this manner,” it said.
Regarding the issue pertaining to the Internal Bills of Exchange (IBOE), the Bank has clarified its position and said that it deos not deal with any Foreign Exchange or IBoEs.
“Even if the IBoEs are authentic , the Bank would have to seek a permission from Finance Department of Government of Sikkim before any transaction are made in this regard to IBoEs. Hence, without proper scrutiny and prior permission the Bank has no authority to accept any proposals relating to any transactions with regards to any IBoE or Foreign Exchange, “ it said.
“The Bank would like to reiterate that there was no “scam” involving the State Bank of Sikkim and any employees of the Bank. This may be intend to defraud the Bank and any individuals by certain people, but due to the quick action of Criminal Investigation Department (CID) the attempt was thwarted ,” the press statement added.

Sikkim Opposition Parties demands enquiry into multi-crore fraud attempt

Gangtok, November 20: Sikkim Pradesh Congress Committee (SPCC) has demanded the investigating agencies like CID should be independent hand for conducting in-depth investigation in major crimes like the multi-crore scam to hoodwink State Bank of Sikkim (SBS) which was busted recently.

In a press statement, SPCC congratulated the CID and State Intelligence Bureau for their ‘unprecedented success’ in busting the serious racket of Rs. 85 crores. The party said that names of those influential persons involved in the case should be made public so these big names are exposed. Culprits must be punished irrespective of their official, social and political status, the party said.

The SPCC added that ever since the formation of the Sikkim Democratic Front (SDF) in Sikkim, the State has been witnessing innumerable major crimes. The opposition party highlighted cases like printing of fake currency notes, operation of illegal private banks like Teena, Bharosa and Siddhi, which swindled away crores of rupees of the depositors, smuggling of red sandalwood.

“The commitment of the SDF government to uproot corruption and illegal activities from the face of Sikkim has so far proved complete failure. Instead there has been constant increase in such activities”, said the SPCC.

Meanwhile,State BJP vice president Padam Chettri has demanded that an appropriate Central government agency to probe into the attempted financial fraud in Sikkim that came into light recently thanks to a CID Sikkim expose.
“The accused persons are from outside the State and the criminal case has national and international ramifications. Moreover it has foreign exchange angle since the International Bills of Exchange is involved”, said Chettri today in a press statement. He demanded that the case should be investigated by the appropriate Central government agency such as CBI.
The BJP vice president has decided to approach the CBI Director requesting the agency to take up the case

Four held for State Bank of Sikkim overdraft fraud

Gangtok, Nov. 17: Four persons have been arrested by Criminal Investigation Division (CID) of Sikkim police with the crime fighting agency nipping in the bud an outrageous ploy to dupe the State-owned State Bank of Sikkim with an initial amount of Rs. 85 crores.
Sunil Rai, Subroto Banerjee, Gautam Das and Sudip Malik have been arrested under sections 420/423/120 B and other sections of IPC for fraud and submission of forged documents, said Senior Superintendent of Police (Crime Branch) ST Bhutia to reporters here today afternoon.
The CID had started investigations into the case after credible information was received and a case registered against the above four accused even as investigations were being launched. The four were arrested from the Capital in a swoop which continued till late into the morning today.
While Mr. Bhutia said that it was a case of fraud and also an ‘economic offence’, he said more details could not be provided since investigations are still on and the case is in a preliminary stage.
Though nothing much came from the officials on the investigations so far, sources inform that the four accused had tried to withdraw an amount worth Rs. 85 crores from the State Bank of Sikkim (SBS) which would be paid later.
The modus operandi so far reveal that the four cheques were seized from the arrested persons include three cheques worth Rs. 25 crores each while the other one was worth Rs. 10 crores.
One of the cheques for Rs. 25 crores was signed by Sunil Rai, another two worth Rs. 50 crores (Rs. 25 crores each) by the Director of Om Mantra Infra Projects Limited and one cheque worth Rs. 10 crores by United Sales, all of whom operate accounts in the State Bank of Sikkim.
It is yet to be known whether they had money worth the amount in the bank.
The cheques which were payable in favour of one person named PK Anand have been seized by the CID wing. All the cheques were to be paid back in later different dates in November 2014.
Sources also inform that some documents confiscated by the CID reveal that a proposal had been put up by one Auroma Impex, a company who had authorized Global Solutions on behalf of the parent company Excelsior Consultants and Investment company based in Coimbatore to have an understanding with the SBS.
A letter by Auroma Impex has authorized Global Solutions to provide collateral for raising of funds to the extent of Rs. 2,500 crores through International Bills of Exchange (IBOE) issued by the United States Treasury. The letter has also requested the SBS to issue a Letter of Intent (LOI) to accept as Collateral for Rs. 2500 crores on creating Line on Credit from the SBS banking source.
They have also put a term that 50 per cent of the total amount was to be returned to the provider of IBOE and the collateral was to be returned to the US treasury after 5 years and could be renewed for the next 5 years.
In another letter, Auroma Impex has authorized Subroto Banerjee and Gautam Das, partners of Global Solutions, Kolkata to introduce and capitalize on IBOE issued by US Treasury to the SBS Chairman and other high officials.
Sources reveal that those four arrested have been dropping big names even as the investigations are in the preliminary stages. They were today produced in front of chief judicial magistrate (North/East) Gangtok and were sent for police remand for four days.