ABG Shipyard: CBI Registers Its Biggest Bank Fraud Case For Rs 22842 Crores, Searches At 13 Places Including In Mumbai And Pune
New Delhi, 12th February 2022: The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), has filed its biggest bank fraud case so far and booked ABG Shipyard and its then chairman and managing director Rishi Kamlesh Agarwal and others for cheating a consortium of banks led by the State Bank of India. The fraud is pegged at Rs 22842 crores.
The AC V unit of the CBI HQ Delhi has registered the FIR on 7th February and has started the investigation. Searches were carried out at searches at 13 places including Mumbai and Pune.
Besides Agarwal, the CBI FIR has also named then executive director Santhanam Muthaswamy, directors Ashwini Kumar, Sushil Kumar Agarwal and Ravi Vimal Nevetia and another company ABG International private limited for alleged offences of criminal conspiracy, cheating, criminal breach of trust and abuse of official position under the IPC and the Prevention of Corruption Act.
The bank had first filed a complaint on November 8, 2019, on which the CBI had sought some clarifications on 12th March 2020.
The SBI filed a fresh complaint in August that year. After “scrutinising” for 18 months, the CBI acted on the complaint filing an FIR on February 7, 2022.
The company was sanctioned credit facilities from 28 banks and financial institutions with the SBI having exposure of Rs 2,468.51 crore. The E&Y Forensic Audit has shown that between 2012-17, the accused colluded together and committed illegal activities including diversion of funds, misappropriation and criminal breach of trust. Funds were used for purposes other than for which they were released by banks.
