Rs 23,000 Crore Bank Fraud: CBI Issues Alert At Airports For ABG Shipyard Bosses

By OB Bureau On Feb 15, 2022

New Delhi: A day after the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), in their biggest bank fraud case yet, booked ABG Shipyard directors, the agency on Tuesday, issued lookout circulars against ABG Shipyard bosses and senior executives.

The CBI had booked the Mumbai-based company and its directors Rishi Agarwal, Santhanam Muthuswamy, and Ashwini Kumar for allegedly defrauding 28 banks of Rs 22,842 crore.

ABG Shipyard, a flagship company of the ABG Group, is a shipbuilding company. Its shipyards are located in Gujarat’s Dahej and Surat. The CBI said on Monday that they had conducted a search at 13 locations on February 12, The Quint reported.

“Incriminating documents, such as books of accounts of accused borrower company, purchase/sales details, minutes of meetings of Board, share registers, various contract files were recovered,” the CBI said on Tuesday.

“Bank account details of the accused, as well as related parties, obtained. Accused have been located in India. Subsequently, LOCs against the accused have already been opened by CBI. Earlier, State Bank of India had also opened LOCs against the main accused in 2019,” the CBI further said.

The CBI said that huge investments were made in its overseas subsidiary by diverting the bank loans. “Funds were diverted to purchase huge assets in the name of its related parties. During the perusal of records and initial investigation, it is seen that the critical period was 2005-2012,” the CBI added, according to the report.

What CBI found

The Forensic Audit showed that between the years 2012-17, ABG Shipyard and others had conspired together and indulged in illegal activities like diversion of funds, criminal breach of trust, and misappropriation.

According to the CBI, the withdrawal of “general consent” by the state governments has led to a more challenging process of filing bank fraud cases.

“There are some 100 high-value bank fraud cases that could not be registered due to non-accordance of specific consent… by state governments where the general consent has been withdrawn,” the CBI said in the statement.

However, this will have little impact on the ABG Shipyard case as it was filed in Delhi, where CBI has the original jurisdiction, the report added.