Bank of Baroda black money case: Nearly 60 low-income citizens made company directors

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and Enforcement Directorate (ED) has said that low-income citizens like hawkers, auto-rickshaw drivers were used by perpetrators to send their ill-gotten money to foreign countries in the Bank of Baroda black money laundering case, a TOI report said.

The report said that about 59 persons living in slums, rickshaw pullers, vendors, drivers, household workers, were approached by black money hoarders and made directors of nearly 59 companies in the Bank of Baroda money laundering scandal which has amounted to Rs 6,172 crore.

For this, the drivers, vendors were asked to provide their voter ID cards for a sum of nearly Rs 10,000 – 15,000 a month, the report said, which seems lucrative given their vulnerable background. This voter id was then used to make new fake PAN cards, which were later used to open current accounts in banks in their names. The perpetrators also opened shell companies in Hong Kong in their names, the report says.

The report says that exporters overvalued their products to get a drawback on duties, which was later transferred to the bank accounts opened using fake ids.

In October this year, the CBI had carried out searches at several Bank of Baroda branches in New Delhi, in connection with black money amounting to nearly Rs 6,100 crore, which was transferred to Hong Kong, in collusion with bank officials.

Under the investigation, accounts for nearly 60 companies were opened at the Ashok Vihar branch of Bank of Baroda which are under the scanner.

Following the initial developments, the Special CBI court on October 19 had sent the assistant general manager S K Garg to 14 days in judicial custody in the Rs 6,000 crore suspicious remittances case.

Last month , CBI's FIR had alleged that "59 current account holders and unknown bank officials conspired to send overseas remittances, mostly to Hong Kong, of foreign exchange worth approximately Rs 6,000 crore in illegal and irregular manner in violation of established banking norms under the garb of payments towards suspected non-existent imports".

Bank Of Baroda