Rs538cr fraud: CBI searches 7 sites linked to Jet Airways

NEW DELHI: The CBI on Friday conducted searches at seven locations including the offices of Jet Airways and its founder Naresh Goyal in connection with an alleged bank fraud case worth Rs 538-crore. The agency filed an FIR against Goyal, his wife and former airline director Gaurang Ananda Shetty on May 3. Friday's searches were spread across residences of Anita and Shetty as well, sources said.
The FIR, filed on the complaint of Canara Bank, had detailed alleged siphoning of funds through payments made to process and consultancy expenses. "It was noted that Rs 1,152.6 crores was incurred towards professional and consultancy expenses during the review period 01.04.2011 to 30.06.2019. Out of these, suspicious transactions to the tune of Rs 197.57 crores were identified in case of entities which were linked to JIL, i.e. Key Managerial Personnel of JIL were also linked to these entities," the FIR claims.
"It is observed that professional and consultancy expenses to the extent of Rs 420.43 crores out of Rs 1,152.62 crores are paid to entities whose nature of business is different from the service description in their invoices raised on JIL," it further reads.
The bank also observed that these entities were having turn-over similar to the expense amount being recorded by JIL against those entities under the garb of professional and consultancy expenses.
"These transactions point towards cheating and misappropriation of funds by the borrower by misappropriation and siphoning of funds borrowed from banks being utilised for purposes unrelated to the operations of borrower, to the detriment of the financial health of the entity and/or the lender," the bank has said in its complaint.
According to officials, the account was declared as fraud and reported to RBI in July 2021 for Rs 728.6 crore. Of this 538.62 crore pertain to Canara Bank and Rs 190 crore pertain to erstwhile Syndicate Bank. Jet Airways shuttered operations in April 2019 after flying for more than 25 years and went into insolvency resolution process.