48 firms, three persons and unknown officials of banks booked

The Central Bureau of Investigation has registered a case against 48 Chennai-based companies, three individuals and unknown officials of various banks for having allegedly transferred ₹1,038.34 crore in unaccounted cash to Hong Kong in 2014-15.

Bank accounts opened in the names of these companies were allegedly used to receive money from a large number of accounts in different parts of the country and divert it to the accounts of several firms in Hong Kong.

The three individuals have been identified as Mohammad Ibramsa Johny, a resident of Sivaganga and Zinta Midhar and Nizamuddin from Chennai.

The case is based on information received from a source about the transfer of black money through foreign remittances, mostly by residents of Chennai, in connivance with bank officials.

In all, 51 current accounts for the 48 firms were opened in four branches of the Bank of India, the Punjab National Bank and the State Bank of Mysore for transferring the funds, the FIR alleged. As many as 24 of these accounts were used for outward remittances in foreign currency — valued around ₹488.39 crore back then — on the pretext of advance payment for import of goods, while the other accounts were used for outward transfers totalling ₹550 crore, purportedly for foreign travel by Indian tourists. It is alleged that the companies had submitted identification papers and certificate of import-export codes issued in the name of 25 firms, of which only 10 had made imports in small quantities. The value of the imported goods was much lower than that which was declared in the invoices submitted by the companies to the banks concerned at the time of transferring the funds abroad.

The persons who facilitated the transactions were paid commissions, and bank officials were bribed. Most of the transactions were made in the second half of 2015. The annual turnover of the firms was shown in lakhs, while the funds sent abroad were in crores.