The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has arrested six accused persons in connection with a bank fraud involving alleged overseas remittances of foreign exchange to the tune of ₹6,000 crore to Hong Kong and Dubai.
Based on the CBI case, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) has also launched a money laundering investigation. It was alleged that the funds were transferred on the pretext of advance payments for imports that never fructified.
As alleged, they overvalued the goods and sent them to the conduits operating in the same country as that of end buyers. The goods were passed on to the end buyers, for which the conduits received genuine payments. However, they paid extra amounts to the Indian exporters based on inflated invoices, which were used to claim more duty drawbacks.
The arrangement led to a deficit of funds on the conduit's part. Therefore, to overcome the shortfall, the differential was pushed into the banking system through small undetectable deposits in a large number of accounts. The total amount was then routed to the current accounts opened in the name of shell companies and transferred to the middlemen overseas.
The shell firms, which used identification papers of slum dwellers, drivers and street vendors to open the accounts, were shut down within months to evade detection.