IDBI ex-officials, 24 others booked

At a time when the Government and banks are focusing on flushing out economic offenders, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) seems to have taken the curtains off another scam.

The CBI has booked 15 former officials of the IDBI Bank and 24 others, including Aircel founder C Sivasankaran, 11 companies including Axcel Sunshine Ltd and Finland-based Win Wind Oy and their directors for allegedly cheating the bank to the tune of Rs 600 crore.

CBI officials said that Sivasankaran allegedly took a loan of Rs 530 crore in February 2014. This swelled to Rs 600 crore after becoming NPA.

The agency has carried out searches at 50 locations, including the residences of former senior IDBI bank officials. The searches are spread across Delhi, Mumbai, Faridabad, Gandhinagar, Chennai, Bangalore, Belgaum, Hyderabad, Jaipur and Pune.

It was alleged that Finland based Company was sanctioned loan by ICG, Chennai, IDBI in October, 2010 to the extent of USD equivalent of EUR 52 million {INR equivalent Rs 322.40 crore (approx)}. The performance of said company showed stress and it was eventually granted voluntary bankruptcy by a Court in Finland in October 2013. It was further alleged that in February / March 2014 a loan amounting to US $ 83 million {Rs 523 crore (approx)} was sanctioned by IDBI to the company based in the British Virgin Islands, an associate company of the said Group of Companies. This was allegedly used for repaying other loans of other associate companies of this Group in flagrant violation of the regulatory guidelines of RBI on Foreign Investments in India.

The holding company of the WWO is Siva Investments and Holdings Limited based in the Seychelles which is again controlled by Siva Group of Companies chaired by C Sivasankaran, the agency alleged. When WWO went into liquidation, IDBI Bank sanctioned another loan of Rs 523 crore to Axcel Sunshine Limited based in British Virgin Islands, a tax haven, in February 2014 which is also a company associated with Siva Group of Companies, it alleged.

“This (Rs 523 crore loan) was allegedly used for repaying other loans of other associate companies of this group (including WWO) in flagrant violation of the regulatory guidelines of RBI on foreign investments in India. This loan also turned into NPA in 2015”, CBI said.   The loan has been fully provided for and it has initiated actions to recover dues from the borrower in August, 2016, IDBI Bank said in a statement.

The case has been registered under sections relating to criminal conspiracy, cheating and corruption against British Virgin Islands based Axcel Sunshine Limited on allegations of perpetrating fraud through the loan accounts of Win Wind Oy, Finland and Axcel Sunshine Limited. Planet Pickles Private Limited (Bengaluru); and Win Wind Power Energy Private Limited (Thiruvallur); and Siva Industries have also been named. The FIR alleges the role of Axcel Sunshine Limited, British Virgin Islands-based Broadcourt Investments and Lotus Ventures Investment; Indian Telecom Holdings Limited (Mauritius); Siva Palm Corp (Singapore); and Chennai-based Siva Industries and Holdings Limited and Sterling Agro Product and Processing Private Limited.

The CBI has stated 15 senior officers of IDBI bank, including retired officials, and 24 private officials, including directors and chairmen, and their companies have been booked. Then IDBI independent Directors P.S. Shenoy, S.Ravi and Ninad Karpe; K. Biju George, then General Manager; Manoj Alex, then Regional Manager; Venkata Krishnan, then General Manager; Subroto Gupta, then Chief General and current Executive Director; then Executive Directors Vinay Kumar and B. Rabindra Nath; and GM Yadwadkar, then Executive Director and current DMD of IDBI Bank, have also been arraigned.