Nirav Modi scam: Billion dollar diamond fraud puts state banks in focus

File photo of Nirav Modi ALSO READ PNB scam: Govt is watching every move investigative agencies are taking Scam-hit PNB acts to integrate SWIFT into its core banking solution Nirav Modi scam: Crisil puts Punjab National Bank s ratings under watch Nirav Modi scam at PNB: Other banks also involved alleges Mamata Banerjee PNB scam: UCO Bank has 412 mn in exposure to fraudulent transactions span.p-content div id = div-gpt line-height:0;font-size:0 The Punjab National Bank branch in south Mumbai sits just down the road from both the Bombay Stock Exchange and the Reserve Bank of India at a physical centre of one of the world s fastest growing major economies. The branch clad in a stately colonial edifice is now also at the heart of a fraud case linked to billionaire jeweller Nirav Modi that has shaken confidence in a state banking sector that accounts for some 70 percent of India s banking assets. It was here according to accounts from Punjab National Bank https://www.pentaxuser.com/user/kkmytata-391710 executives and government investigators that a lone middle-aged manager later aided by his young subordinate engineered fraudulent transactions totalling about 1.8 billion from 2011 to 2017. The bank says it is still investigating how they were able to do so and go undetected for so long. The accounts given by current and former executives who spoke to Reuters suggest an answer as simple as it is alarming: no one was paying attention. The still unravelling story of how the fraud happened - which includes the alleged misuse of the SWIFT interbank messaging system and incomplete ledger entries - points to a breakdown in checks and balances and standard banking practices they said. The apparent failure of anyone to notice the largest fraud in Indian banking history until this January reveals a rot in the state financial sector that goes beyond one lender said Santosh Trivedi who spent nearly four decades at Punjab National Bank before retiring in 2016 as a senior manager of audit and inspection in the New Delhi head office. Unless this rot is controlled at this stage to the satisfaction of the international community it is dangerous for the Indian system Trivedi said. JEWELLER TO THE STARS Last month Punjab National Bank known as PNB filed an initial criminal complaint with the country s Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) accusing celebrity jeweller Nirav Modi and others of defrauding the bank and causing it a loss of 2.8 billion Indian rupees (more than 43 million). The allegations against a man whose diamond creations have draped Hollywood stars such as Kate Winslet and Dakota Johnson generated a flurry of coverage across India s TV screens and newspapers. Modi has not publicly commented on the case. He and his family left the country in earlier January according to Indian officials and a call on Sunday to a corporate spokesperson who has handled media for Modi in the past went unanswered. No charges have been filed against him. But as more details surfaced about what is alleged to have happened at the state-run bank which was founded in 1894 the stakes have gotten higher. A review of bank and government documents related to the case - and interviews with current and former PNB executives bank auditors and experts - points to a lack of accountability and standards in the country s public banking system. As of last September those banks held about 87 percent of the Indian banking system s 9.46 trillion rupees (about 147 billion) of soured loans that are non-performing restructured or rolled over. A preliminary investigation by the nation s tax authority said of the PNB fraud that the hit Indian banks would take in the end may well exceed 3 billion according to an internal note seen by Reuters. Yes there is a problem. We have recognised it bank Chief Executive Officer Sunil Mehta said during an investor call on Friday. We are in the process of fixing it up. We ll see wherever the loopholes are there. The people-related risk we are going to mitigate. But despite that promise of action one current senior executive at the bank s headquarters in New Delhi said further problems could not be ruled out. In Indian banks we don t work under ideal situation the executive who declined to be identified said during an interview at his office. We are in the business of risk you can t say there won t be road accidents. FRAUDULENT GUARANTEES According to court documents filed on Saturday by the CBI branch deputy manager Gokulnath Shetty issued a series of fraudulent Letters of Undertaking - essentially guarantees sent to other banks so that they would provide loans to a customer in this case a group of Indian jewellery companies. These letters were sent to overseas branches of banks thought to be almost all Indian that would then lend money to the jewellery firms. Shetty did so using the bank s SWIFT system to log in with passwords that allowed him and in at least some instances a more junior official to serve as both the person who sent messages and as the person who reviewed them for approval according to court documents and interviews with bank executives. The involvement and connivance of more staff members and outsiders at this stage cannot be ruled out said a CBI document submitted to the court in Mumbai. Shetty is now in custody and he has not publicly responded to the allegations. Calls to a cell phone listed for his wife on court documents were not answered. Asked about the password sharing the senior Punjab National Bank executive said it was not best practice but in the everyday bustle of Indian banks it happens. When you are flooded with customers in the morning with 101 demands you look for shortcuts he said. You do somebody else s work somebody else does your work. You are not working in an ideal situation. A second senior executive at the bank s headquarters who also asked that his name not be used echoed that sentiment. After entering the transactions on SWIFT the CBI documents said Shetty - who worked at the same branch from 2010 to 2017 despite normal bank practices of regular rotations - did not record them on the bank s internal system. Because PNB s internal software system was not linked with SWIFT employees were expected to manually log SWIFT activity. If that was not done the transactions did not show up on the bank s books. A SWIFT spokeswoman said in a statement last week that the company does not comment on individual customers. All together there were at least 150 such fraudulent Letters of Undertaking during a seven-year period according to a CBI official who spoke on the condition of anonymity. In addition to detaining Shetty and the junior employee the CBI has arrested a man who it described in court documents as both being aware about the modus operandi of the entire scams and serving as a director in 15 to 16 companies of Nirav Modi Group . An older brother of the man Hemant Bhatt said outside a courtroom on Saturday that he was innocent and the allegations were the result of a media trial . The brother did not give his name. An uncle of the junior bank employee Manoj Kharat told a Reuters reporter outside the court that his nephew was just following orders of superiors and added he wasn t aware of what he is doing . All three are to be held in custody until March 3. No charges have so far been laid against them. FINANCIAL HIT A Feb. 12 note seen by Reuters sent from PNB to other banks and marked confidential said: None of the transactions were routed through the CBS system - the bank s internal network - thus avoiding early detection of fraudulent activity. The Reserve Bank of India did not respond to a request for comment about whether it had earlier detected any anomalies in Punjab National Bank s operations or whether it would take additional action in auditing banks. In a statement late on Friday the central bank called the fraud at PNB a case of operational risk arising on account of delinquent behaviour by one or more employees of the bank and failure of internal controls . It also said the central bank has already undertaken a supervisory assessment of control systems in PNB and will take appropriate supervisory action . The CBI paperwork says the fraudulent Letters of Undertaking are likely to add up to the vicinity of 60 billion rupees or more than 930 million. Bank executives say the amount tallied by working back through internal records is 1.77 billion. With assets of about 120 billion as of December according to bank filings PNB will be able to cover any associated losses though it is still a huge hit for a bank whose stock market value was only 6.1 billion before it revealed details of the alleged fraud last week. It has since seen 1.4 billion wiped off that market capitalisation. The mechanics of how the fraud happened and what it says about the underlying industry culture are worrying said Abizer Diwanji national leader for financial services in India at accounting firm Ernst & Young. Checks and balances are there in public banks as well but they are not followed earnestly said Diwanji who has tracked India s financial services industry for more than two decades. This is where the discipline the culture is not there. I always believe that we don t have the culture to manage risks even operational risks. PNB is not an outlier in this. To control such risks most private sector banks require branches to route SWIFT messages through their central offices Diwanji said. They also usually integrate their own software systems and SWIFT meaning that activity such as a Letter of Undertaking being sent would get automatically recorded. Neither is the case at PNB or most state-run banks in India Diwanji said. Representatives of two of the external audit firms listed on PNB s annual report for the 2016-17 fiscal year said they could not have known what happened. It was off-books so auditors will not be in a position to detect it said Sudesh Punhani a partner at Chhajed & Doshi. Asked whether the bank s failure to integrate its software system and SWIFT was a cause of concern Neeraj Golas a partner at R. Devendra Kumar & Associates also an external auditor of the bank said: True true - we have to really get into it and understand what all these things are. Read our full coverage on Nirav Modi scam at PNB
By Vijaya Rathore This is a first person account by a former ET journalist who had met Nirav Modi some years ago. Here she recalls it all for us. It was 2014 and I was not a damsel in distress by any flight of imagination. Yet there I was struggling to find public transport in the middle of serpentine roads and humid air in India s maximum city. Late for an important meeting I was cross with myself. After some luck I did finally reach the venue and completed the interview. In an ironic twist of fortune a few hours later I was offered a ride back home in a chauffeur-driven Rolls-Royce. But first the backdrop . As a journalist writing for the biggest financial daily little did I know that the man I was going to interview would be embroiled in one of the biggest financial frauds just four years down the road. Yet it was probably happenstance that the man whom I met was none other than Nirav Modi the Belgium-born poster boy of Indian luxury who shot to fame by launching his namesake diamond jewellery brand. Having interacted with him over the phone and emails in the past since I was based out of Delhi it was high time I met Modi. I was eager to get an insight into the business of luxury his brand and the man behind the diamonds. Naturally meeting this self-made billionaire in person was a tick off my bucket list. Rolling in wealth An excruciatingly long walk from the taxi drop off point to his office building very minimal at the exterior felt much longer due to the searing heat. The discomfort however vanished the moment I reached the swanky air-cooled reception. An unexpectedly warm welcome by three sari-clad women with ear-to-ear grins helped. Welcome they said out loud in unison calling me by my name. I have to confess it did feel nice. A good way to break some ice with a stranger I guess! A room with beautifully upholstered sofas and couches awaited me. Time flew checking out an enviable art collection on the front wall. I am no art connoisseur but I knew Nirav was an avid collector with a taste for fine art dazzled me. Modi showed up dressed in formal trousers and a white shirt apologising for making the ET journalist wait. A short and skinny man with a fair complexion sharp facial features and receding hairline I remember he wore a very pleasant and warm smile throughout. As we began talking about the provenance he moved closer to the wall and slid it from the left revealing another magnificent collection hidden from plain sight. Before I could process what I saw and focus on any specific piece he slid it again to unravel another set of majestic paintings he had collected from galleries and auctions around the world. There must have been 7-8 such walls in that mid-sized room preserving nearly 100 paintings many by top artists. That must have cost him a fortune I thought to myself. His wealth hadn t made him brash or hubristic. During the interview Nirav came across as a very soft spoken extremely well mannered and a humble individual. While talking to him I glanced across the office room and wasn t surprised to find a big aquarium running through the wall. There was a big wooden table with exquisite pieces and a beautifully crafted dining table in the adjacent room. We talked about his diamonds the state of luxury in India the jewellery brand his life in Antwerp trekking trips with family and more. Eager to get a good story I carefully broached the Rs 50 crore diamond necklace topic. The piece had been specially crafted for a Sotheby s auction to be held later that year. He took me to the salon a room with expensive wooden flooring big mirrors drawers tables cupboards and chests. Everything was in lockers for obvious reasons! A staff member brought over the box carrying the necklace. Would you like to try it he asked adding the cautionary words Just don t drop it. I did give it a try. Do you know who was here last he asked again. Sharon Stone said his marketing executive. Jewels lunch and his tea Modi literally swam with crores. His jewels have been popular at auctions royal palaces and red carpets alike. The Rs 50-crore piece was acquired by a Hong-Kong based buyer whose name was never made public. Another Rs 13-crore diamond necklace was put under the hammer by Christies in 2015. In the second sale the price has appreciated by 71 % since 2011. In 2010 his Golconda Lotus Necklace studded with Argyle pink diamonds was auctioned at Christie s Hong Kong for Rs 16.29 crore. The man had a thing for pink. Given the love for pink diamonds he had struck a deal with Rio Tinto to source the Australian miner s signature Argyle Pink Diamonds for jewellery. The value of such pink diamonds is directly related to their rarity. For every coloured diamond there exist at least 10 000 colourless ones he said adding color to the point. Over lunch he discussed his ambitious retail expansion plan to open stores at the most expensive retail locations in New York London and Hong Kong. I was hungry. The in-house chefs had prepared a three-course lunch with a printed menu for me while he was served a very small portion of homemade khichdi. I am watching my diet he said. I thanked him for the hospitality had some food and conversation went on. As irony would have it Nirav Modi told me that he had designed special Nimo cufflinks depicting Nemo the clownfish. This was obviously a reference to the word Nimo used in the headline of an ET article I had done sometime back. Besides pink diamonds his special liking for cufflinks was quite evident. A businessman who once met Modi shared that Nirav showed him a pair of Rs 5 lakh cufflinks that he got made for himself with the yellow anti-stress ball emoticon on it. However Modi also had some eccentricities. He apparently checked the temperature of the tea served with a thermometer to make sure every cup of tea is exactly as warm as how he likes it. The tea sometimes gets cold before reaching my table Modi had told him. Modi also spent a lot of money on brand creation and promotions. From getting the most premium spots at art exhibitions and fairs to poaching people from the luxury trade by offering double and triple the salaries Nirav always had it his way. He sent out expensive gifts like imported wines chocolates exotic flowers to the media and other influencers. He tied up with topmost art galleries to organise fancy events for business promotion. He understood that the life-size hoardings with celebs like Priyanka Chopra would be hard to miss even in the concrete jungles we call big cities. And yes organising private viewing was a special focus area for him. Towards the end of our meeting he graciously showed me around the rest of the office and the workshop where specialists worked on rough diamonds. Everyone worked with clock-work precision. We are not making just jewellery here this is art he summed up. While leaving he offered me some Belgian chocolates. Even today I can taste their melt-in-mouth texture. It was a sweet goodbye until today.
MUMBAI: Rating agency Crisil has put the scam-ridden Punjab National Bank s ratings on watch following the Rs 11 400-crore fraud detected by the lender at one of its Mumbai branches. The fraudulent transactions were carried by the diamond jeweller Nirav Modi and his companies by acquiring fraudulent letters of undertaking (LoUs) from the lender s Brady House branch at Horniman Circle branch in south Mumbai to secure overseas credit from other lenders. These are mostly domestic lenders such as SBI UCO Bank Allahabad Bank Union Bank Axis Bank among others. The agency has a AAA and AA ratings on the various debt instruments of the Delhi based public sector lender which is the second largest amongst the nationalized banks. We ve placed our ratings on the debt instruments of PNB on rating watch with developing implications following its February 14 disclosure that it has detected some fraudulent and unauthorised transactions at its Brady House branch the agency said. The lender had said the fraudulent transactions are contingent in nature and liability arising out of these on the bank shall be decided based on the law and genuineness of underlying transactions. We ve sought clarity from the PNB management to understand the timeline and the quantum of crystallization of this contingent liability prospects for recovery estimated provisioning potential impact on capitalisation ratios and expectation of additional capital support amongst others Crisil said. The agency however said it will remove the ratings from watch and take a final rating action once it has clarity on the matter. The agency said it continues to factor in the expectation of strong support from the government established franchise and strong market position in the banking sector adequate capitalisation and resource profile.
LUCKNOW/NEW DELHI: It wasn t just public sector banks that took a hit from loans and guarantees to diamond firms run by Nirav Modi and Mehul Choksi. As many as 24 companies and 18 businessmen who had taken franchise of their jewellery brand between 2013 and 2017 filed criminal complaints of financial bankruptcy due to breach and fraud committed by the two. These businessmen and firms had opened franchise showrooms of Choksi-owned Gitanjali Jewellery and Gili in Delhi Agra Meerut Bengaluru Mysuru Karnal parts of Gujarat and Rajasthan. According to records accessed by TOI the FIRs registered in all the cases deal with criminal conspiracy fraud and violation of agreement by Choksi s firms to send stocks of diamond and precious gems despite taking security deposits between Rs 3 crore and Rs 20 crore from franchisees. Sources in the income tax department said that they were evaluating the liabilities investments and profit before and after tax by Choksi s companies. A three-year contract that was signed between Choksi s firms and franchisees mandated a fixed minimum guarantee commission (MGC) by him at 12% per annum on security deposit apart from rental for the jewellery showroom. The franchisees however detected violations that Gitanjali would either not replenish the stock send items which carried prices much lesser than the market rates or not pay the rental. A Delhi-based businessman Vaibhav Khurania was among the first to detect Choksi firm s fraud in 2013. He opened a retail store in Rajouri Garden but had to shut it down after Gitanjali allegedly did not send him stocks for Rs 3 crore despite taking the payment. In fact they sent those items of which the market price was much less but the showroom price was 3-4 times more of the actual price one FIR stated. As many as three FIRs in Karnataka in 2015 reveal that one franchisee Amit Kumar from Mysuru had a Rs 1.7 crore cheque issued by Gitanjali bounced while one Hari Prasad failed to get Rs5 crore rental for his showroom to sell Gitanjali jewellery. According to records the FIRs in many cases were registered only after court s interference. The records also reveal that Choksi would seek quashing of FIR in most cases.
NEW DELHI: After billionaire diamantaire Nirav Modi another defaulter Vikram Kothari the promoter of Rotomac Pen has also allegedly gone abroad after swindling Rs 800 crore from various public sector banks including Allahabad Bank Bank of India and Union Bank of India sources said. The Kanpur-based company s owner had taken a loan of more than Rs 800 crore from over five state-owned banks. Allahabad Bank Bank of India Bank of Baroda Indian Overseas Bank and Union Bank of India compromised their rules to sanction loans to Rotomac the sources said. However according to local media reports the promoter said speculation of his fleeing the country is baseless. I am a resident of Kanpur and I will stay in the city. However I do have to travel to foreign countries for business purposes Kothari said. Kothari took a loan of Rs 485 crore from Mumbai-based Union Bank of India and a loan of Rs 352 crore from Kolkata-based Allahabad Bank. A year later Kothari has reportedly not paid back either the interest or the loan. Last year Bank of Baroda (BoB) a consortium partner declared pen manufacturer Rotomac Global Pvt Ltd as wilful defaulter . The company moved the Allahabad High Court seeking removal of its name from the list of wilful defaulter. A division bench comprising Chief Justice D B Bhosle and Justice Yashwant Verma had passed the order on a petition filed by the company contending that it has been wrongly declared a wilful defaulter by BoB despite having offered assets worth more than Rs 300 crore to the bank since the date of default . Rotomac was declared a wilful defaulter vide an order dated February 27 2017 passed by an authorised committee as per the procedure laid down by the Reserve Bank of India. The development comes less than a week after Punjab National Bank (PNB) had detected a USD 1.77 billion (about Rs 11 400 crore) scam wherein Modi allegedly acquired fraudulent letters of undertaking (LoUs) from a branch in Mumbai to secure overseas credit from other Indian lenders. The PNB fraud pertains to issuance of fake LoUs to companies associated with billionaire jeweller Nirav Modi by errant PNB employees which enabled these companies to raise buyers credit from international branches of other Indian lenders. Last month PNB had lodged an FIR with CBI stating that fraudulent LoUs worth Rs 280.7 crore were first issued on January 16. At the time PNB had said it was digging into records to examine the magnitude of the fraud. In the complaint PNB had named three diamond firms Diamonds R Us Solar Exports and Stellar Diamonds saying they had approached it on January 16 with a request for buyers credit for making payment to overseas suppliers.
The owner of a defunct pen brand has come under the scanner after he took loans worth over Rs 800 crores from various public sector banks and then allegedly fled the country News18 reported. According to Economic Times Vikram Kothari who owned Rotomac Pens had taken loans from Allahabad Bank Bank of India Bank of Baroda Indian Overseas Bank and Union Bank of India but failed to pay the interest as well as the principal amount. According to News18 banks had bent rules to supply loans to Kothari. Media reports state that Kothari has been untraceable for a week. His office is located in Kanpur. Representational image. Reuters The latest instance of alleged financial fraud comes just days after possibly India s biggest-ever banking fraud came to light at the Punjab National Bank (PNB). Nirav Modi a regular on the lists of rich and famous Indians since 2013 was booked by the CBI along with wife brother and business partner Mehul Choksi on 31 January for allegedly cheating the state-run PNB to the tune of Rs 280 crore. Modi is now in New York according to a report in The Times of India. The bank again approached the CBI within a fortnight of the first complaint alleging that 293 Letters of Understanding worth Rs 11 400 crore were fraudulently issued to the companies of Modi and Choksi from one its branches in Mumbai. As pressure mounted over the Centre to take action against Modi and Choksi the external affairs ministry on Friday suspended their passports with immediate effect. The ministry gave them one week to respond why their passports should not be revoked. If they fail to respond within the stipulated time it will be assumed that they have no response to offer and the MEA will go ahead with the revocation the ministry said in a statement. Meanwhile a special court in Mumbai on Saturday remanded three persons arrested in the alleged PNB scam to 14-day CBI custody saying the controversy has consequences for the economy of the nation . The CBI also told the court that it suspects the involvement of more PNB officials in facilitating fraudulent transactions. With inputs from PTI
HYDERABAD: The Communist Party of India today blamed the Prime Minister s Office for diamond merchant Nirav Modi fleeing the country and hit out at Narendra Modi for keeping mum on the Rs 11 400-crore Punjab National Bank scam. The party s general secretary Suravaram Sudhakar Reddy said the PM s silence on such a big scandal is surprising . On every issue the prime minister reacts tweets and comments. But when such a serious incident takes place why doesn t he speak or react? He must reply Reddy told reporters here. He claimed that in 2016 an individual named Hari Prasad had complained to the PMO about the matter and had requested Nirav Modi s arrest. But no action was taken and Nirav Modi and his family members fled the country in January this year he said. About Nirav Modi being part of an Indian delegation at the World Economic Forum in Davos Reddy asked Nirav Modi met and got himself photographed with the PM. How did it happen? How could Nirav Modi enter? Who helped him? We squarely hold the PMO responsible for Nirav Modi fleeing the country. We demand that the PM respond. The CPI demands that Nirav Modi be arrested and be brought back to India immediately he said. Reddy said liquor baron Vijay Mallya and cricket administrator Lalit Modi left the country under similar circumstances and that no one knew if the government was serious about bringing them back to face justice. He said the BJP claimed to be a party that was above corruption but it too faced allegations like the one against the son of the party s national president and was refusing a transparent inquiry into these allegations. Reddy speaking on the controversy around the purchase of the Rafale fighter aircraft said Not releasing the details of the Rafale deal in the name of official secrets gives rise to doubts. Like Bofors the nation has a right to know and discuss the deal. Earlier releasing the draft of the political resolution of the party to be presented at its meet at Kollam in Kerala in April Reddy said there was a need to mobilise secular political and mass organisations to counter the fascistic offensive of the Modi government and the RSS. He added that a mass resistance was the need of the hour and that the Left parties needed to project alternative economic policies to re-assert their identity.
New Delhi: Enforcement Directorate (ED) sleuths are examining details of over 250 shell firms linked to Nirav Modi his brother and Mehul Choksi which they suspect were used to move ill-gotten financial assets after they defrauded state-owned Punjab National Bank of Rs 11 360 crore. These ghost entities sources said allegedly acted like a sleeper cell to launder money in India and abroad. File image of Nirav Modi. Official Nirav Modi website Many companies which are dormant or dead suspected to have been used by the Nirav and Choksi s group to route and receive money to trick the system. These companies have no specific business activities and could have been activated only to avoid paper trails. Many of such companies were floated by Nirav s brother Neeshal and other close associates sources said. Neeshal s promoted firms Anantnath Valuers Private Limited floated in April 2010 Punarvasu Consultants Private Limited formed in August 2010 Suvadhinath Consultants Private Limited created in March 2010 and Neeshal Merchandising Private Limited incorporated in January 2007 are under the scanner of ED and Income Tax Department. Sources said that all the firms that had no specific business were shut except Neeshal Merchandising. Three suspicious companies linked to Nirav and Neeshal Vashupujya Valuers Samkit Valuers and Anantnath Valuers were all floated on 13 April 2010 while Moola Consultants Sambhavnath Valuers and Supasvanath Consultants were formed on 29 April 2010. All these companies have now been closed down. Neeshal Enterprises Paragon Jewellery LLP and Paragon Merchandising were all floated on 19 March 2014 and are also under the scanner. Some of the companies being probed have given very vague details like involved in wholesale activities perhaps to channelise money back and forth. Choksi-linked companies West Bengal SEZ Limited Aurangabad SEZ Limited Nanded SEZ Limited and Raigad Gems SEZ all closed down years after popping up in 2007-2008 are also being probed by the investigators http://pokemonworld.vforums.co.uk/profile/kkabhibus. These companies are suspected to have been used to smoothly transfer finances from one place to another wash it to make it legitimate before making a landing at the final destination abroad. All these companies have provided the same office address and details for communication. A company called Suvadhinath Consultants formed on 29 March 2010 with Neeshal on the board as one of the directors had claimed to be in the business of book-keeping. It had filed for closure like other companies owned by the brothers on the run sources said. The ED on Sunday raided 45 locations across the country in connection with the PNB scam. Although the agency claimed to have seized diamonds and jewellery worth Rs 5 674 crore sources said the real value could be far lower because the calculation during the searches was done on the basis of price tags in the showrooms.