Belgian auditor commissioned by the Punjab National Bank in February 2018 to conduct a forensic audit of Nirav Modi group’s seven entities. The auditor has found several fake imports, transactions, duplicate invoices, fake employee records among others through investigation.
The Indian Express reported that according to a report submitted by a whistleblower to the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) in partnership with The Indian Express, the BDO has had a breakthrough and opened several secrets of the businessman’s wrongdoings under the garb of a jewellery shop.
The report highlights fraudulent low profitability and low operating expenditure in entities owned by Nirav Modi. The BDO said that the data “raises concern on the genuineness of the business operations of the entities”.
According to an analysis done by the BDO shows extremely low expenditure on which the BDO again raised concerns and doubts as to how can organizations working at a huge level have such minimum expenditure.
The BDO has also detected potential fake employee entries and inflated employee cost. The number of people given salaries is almost double the number of people on the attendance lists.
Letter of Undertaking (LoUs), were found to be at the centre of the scam. Nirav Modi had obtained the letters by bypassing bank regulations.
The BDO team focused on the dates transactions from banks were initiated. Several of the transactions showed an inflow and outflow of funds on the same day and these transactions were carried out in the branches of the Bank of India in Hong Kong, Antwerp and London; the PNB in Hong Kong; the Allahabad Bank in Hong Kong and the Axis Bank in Hong Kong, reported The Indian Express.
