What is Bank of Baroda scam?

A duo of a father and son were arrested by the Enforcement Directorate because of a money laundering case in Bank of Baroda which is estimated to be a sum of Rs. 6,000 crores. Their names are Manmohan Singh Sehgal and Gagandeep Singh Sehgal. They were taken into custody on the grounds of Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA). They have been charged with the case that they were illegally routing approximately 245 crores as funds to enterprises and organizations that are based in Hong Kong, China. The medium to do this successfully has been the use of shell companies.





Reportedly, the father and son had used a very strategic approach in proceeding with their plan of action. They had hired two other people who had opened accounts in the Bank of Baroda, Ashok Vihar branch of Delhi. This was done under fake identity and they claimed to have no financial worth. All the documents that were produced before the bank officials to get the transactions done effectively were also fake. However, the bank officials failed to smell something fishy.

Bank of Baroda Scam

In terms of dollars, the total amount comes to $37,826,899, that is 245 crores in INR. The main question that is also hitting the minds of the masses is that how then leaders can claim that our nation is poor when we actually lose so much to frauds under the disguise of loan. Also, such incidents create havoc in the minds of the public and they lose out all their faith and trust when it comes to the hands in which their life savings are. Although the companies abroad did not really send across any goods, it is being understood clearly that this step was taken to save up on the import duties.





You would be surprised to know that this is not the first arrest that is taking place with regard to this Bank of Baroda scam. Including the arrest of this duo, a total of 9 arrests have been made so far with regard to this case. It has actually been under scrutiny since the past year, that is 2017. Trade based money laundering has been on the rise because companies find it easy to make their way and get things the way they wish to.





But, it is obvious that this duo could not have done this totally on their own. That is why, the intelligence department has been able to put two and two together to make four. This means that they have also arrested the Bank of Baroda AGM S K Garg along with the head of the foreign exchange division, Jainish Dubey. They have been charged with an addition of corruption charges and shall be dealt with in a separate case.





Penalty charges on the Bank of Baroda

Recently, news came that the Bank of Baroda has been charged with a penalty of nothing less than a whopping 9 crore rupees. This was done by the Financial Intelligence Unit. This was done because the Bank of Baroda failed to adhere to norms that were pertaining to anti-money laundering. All this simply followed the scam of the bank where they lost out on a loan that they had given out, which was of Rs. 6,000 crores. The section under which this action has been taken is the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).





BoB Scam

Central bodies which are charged with the responsibility of gathering intelligence regarding money matters and the finance minister of the nation have the power that if they feel certain banks are unable to meet the ground rules laid down by law, then they can impose penalties on the banks and other such organizations.



Money laundering needs to be reported and any such suspicious acts also need to be stated. However, failure to do implies that you are linked to it and that is the basis on which this step has been levied.





It is being said that at least five times have already been in count when the Bank of Baroda has failed in being able to detect and understand that a fraud is brewing up at their Ashok Vihar branch in India’s national capital, the bustling city of Delhi. Years of investigation have been going on but all of it has been of no avail to be able to put an end to this crime at this bank. What is also surprising is that Bank of Baroda is one of the largest public-sector banks that is operating actively in this nation and so many accounts have been opened in this bank.





Bank of Baroda Fraud

The Bank of Baroda has also been held guilty for not being able to successfully file 63 cash transactions that were connected to one another in seven of their accounts. To let the bank, know about this penalty that had been slapped on them, an order of around 48 pages was prepared which had all the necessary details regarding the case, the accusations and the deadline within which they were required to pay the money on rounds of penalty.In fact, there are several other reasons as well as to why such a drastic step had to be taken by the Financial Intelligence Unit.





Bank of Baroda Lacking

These include the failure to possess an efficient internal system that would be able to report and sent 8,962 alerts, inability to understand and make complaints regarding suspicious transactions, lack of success in carrying out proper customer care and delayed filing of approximately more than 8000 electronic transfer of funds. Well, it seems that the Bank of Baroda has a lot of explaining to do not just before the authorities but also to the masses. After all, the public has trusted them with their hard earned money and any such case can have a direct impact on the common man’s account which he actually runs by working dedicatedly all day.





Other Top banking scams of India

· 2011: It was found out that workers from particular banking organizations such as the Bank of Maharashtra, the Oriental Bank of Commerce and the IDBI had been able to successful make almost 10,000 fake accounts. In fact, loans of approximately Rs. 1,500 crores had been transferred.





· 2014: Though there were many scams reported in this year, the biggest one was of Vijay Mallya. It was declared that he was a defaulter. And, the worst fart was that several banks had this claim.

· 2015: The scam in this year included workers of Jain Infraprojects. They had been able to commit fraud at the Central Bank of India and the sum they had dealt with was over Rs. 2 billion. This was also the year when people from a number of other banks were found to be the part of a foreign exchange scam. This was with regard to a firm in Hong Kong. Approximately 60 billion rupees was involved again.





· 2016: You would be surprise to know that the top banking scam of India for the year 2016 was related to the Syndicate Bank. Reportedly, just 4 people had managed to open 380 new accounts. In fact, they had use fake chequ You would be surprise to know that the top banking scam of India for the year 2016 was related to the Syndicate Bank. Reportedly, just 4 people had managed to open 380 new accounts. In fact, they had use fake chequ es and insurance policies to churn out Rs. 10 billion from the bank.





· 2017: As stated earlier, Vijay Mallya had been declared a defaulter in 2014. In 2017, he had to return Rs. 9,500 crores to IDBI and other banks that he had taken as loan for his Kingfisher Airlines which had suffered severe losses. However, he refused to pay up and in turn fled to the United Kingdom to seek shelter.





-Secondly, Winsome Diamonds also came under the scanner when the CBI charged six cases against them. Their total debt has amounted to almost INR 7,000 crores.

-Third in this year, Deccan Chronicle Holdings had causes a loss of INR 11.61 billion.

-Next, Nilesh Parekh, a businessman based in Kolkata was arrested due to charges of taking INR 22.23 billion from around 20 banks at least.





· 2018: Diamond merchant Nirav Modi left the nation shocked when his loans from the Punjab National Bank came to light. In fact, there are also reports that besides this one firm, several other banks have also been at the suffering end because of giving loans to him. Fraud LoUs has been reused by merchant and then issues to other banks illegally. Though he too fled from the country, he is presently in the United States of America according to news channels and sources.

BoB babus took Public Money Away









Tags: Bank of Baroda Scam, Vijay Mallya, Nirav Modi, Mehul Choksi, Manmohan Singh Sehgal, Gagandeep Singh Sehgal













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