Biggest Bank Fraud Case: CBI Books Shipbuilding Company

New Delhi: The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has booked shipbuilding company ABG Shipyard Ltd, headquartered in Mumbai, its ex-Chairman and MD Rishi Kamlesh Agarwal and others for allegedly cheating a State Bank of India-led consortium of banks of over Rs 22,842 crore.

It’s the biggest bank fraud case registered by CBI.

As many as 28 banks and financial institutions sanctioned credit facilities to ABG Shipyard — which has operations in Gujarat’s Surat and Dahej — with SBI having exposure of Rs 2468.51 crore, officials said on Saturday.

CBI also named ex-ED Santhanam Muthaswamy, Directors Ashwini Kumar, Sushil Kumar Agarwal and Ravi Vimal Nevetia and another company named ABG International Pvt Ltd for alleged offences of criminal conspiracy, cheating, criminal breach of trust and abuse of official position under IPC and Prevention of Corruption Act, officials informed.

After a complaint was filed on November 8, 2019, CBI sought some clarifications on March 12, 2020, reported The Indian Express. The bank filed another complaint in August 2020.

After “scrutinising” for a year and a half, CBI filed an FIR five days ago.

According to the Forensic Audit, the accused colluded and committed illegal activities like diversion of funds, misappropriation and criminal breach of trust between 2012 and 17. The accused used funds released by banks for illegal purposes, the complaint stated.