Citi fraud: Siphoned funds may have gone into stocks
The police said Puri and his family was not traceable and that his residence in Hamilton Court was locked. S S Deswal, Gurgaon Commissioner of Police said, "We have released a look-out notice to prevent him from leaving the country and have notified immigration authorities." Money was siphoned in the second stage to certain accounts in broker firms, Bonanza Portfolio and Religare Securities, he said.
Instead of investing the moneys of clients directly into the account of brokerage firms, Puri is alleged to have diverted them to the accounts of his relatives who had opened accounts in these firms. Two brokerage firms Bonanza and Religare, on Wednesday issued statements stating Shivraj Puri was their client. "A certain Shivraj Puri whose name appears in press reports as an accused has a personal broking account with one of our branches. In the light of the recent developments, we have frozen the related accounts and suspended all transactions," Bonanza Portfolio said in its statement.
Religare Securities, a brokerage arm of Religare Enterprise, said Puri was a client with its broking business in his individual capacity since June 2009 and all KYC formalities and other due diligence was undertaken before the account was opened. "We have no knowledge of the details of this alleged scam," Religare said, adding it will cooperate and furnish all information, as and when required by investigating authorities.
Citi fraud: Siphoned funds may have gone into stocks
Preliminary investigation by the police has revealed transactions between Puri's accounts and 60 other accounts with eight banks -- Punjab National Bank, State Bank of India, HDFC Bank, IDBI Bank, Axis Bank, ABN Amro and Standard Chartered. Sources in the police said they were probing if these accounts were genuine or created by Puri. None of the victims of the alleged scam have so far registered a complaint.
Eight of the 18 bank accounts at Citibank's Gurgaon branch belong to a Mumbai-based company, Norman Martin Private Limited, a division of Normans Martin Brokers Pvt. Ltd. This company, according to its website, provides technical research to companies on a wide range of financial services.
The FIR registered by the Gurgaon police on December 27 -- based on a complaint by Binu Soman, AVP, Citibank -- states that big-ticket transactions were noticed from a joint account (5011666247) that Puri opened in September 2009 with close relatives Premnath, Shaila Premnath and Diksha Puri as account holders. The bank's internal probe, the FIR said, revealed that funds were transferred from this account to a firm, G2S Management Consultants and also to a clutch of other accounts.
Citibank itself initiated a probe after receiving information that Puri had got some of the bank's high networth clients to invest in a special scheme that offered unusually high returns.
Source: The Indian Express