Mumbai: Private firm, directors in Rs 464 crore bank fraud

Mumbai: The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has registered a criminal case against a Mumbai-based company and its directors for causing wrongful loss of Rs 464.41 crore to a consortium of nine banks led by the State Bank of India (SBI).

The CBI’s first information report says the company fudged its accounts by disproportionately increasing its debtors and inventories and subsequently wrote off the debts and siphoned off funds to entities related to the directors and some employees.

According to the CBI, a complaint against the company was lodged by Balaji Kurrar Singh Samanta, Deputy General Manager, Stressed Assets Management Branch, World Trade Centre.

The company, situated at Prabhadevi and engaged in the business of printing and trading in papers, and its directors have been accused by the complainant of causing a loss of Rs 461.41 crore to the consortium of lenders.

The FIR said the company and other accused persons named in the case, in the period Apr 1, 2011, to Mar 31, 2016, were party to a criminal conspiracy to cheat the consortium. As part of the conspiracy, the company availed of credit facilities under a consortium lending arrangement led by the SBI. The account eventually slipped into NPA (non-performing asset) category and was declared a fraud.