Another fraud worth Rs 1,424 crore unearthed by DHFL auditor

Another fraud worth Rs 1,424 crore unearthed by DHFL auditor

The company administrator informed NCLT Mumbai about yet another fraud unearthed by the transaction auditor Grant Thornton in the aftermath of the IL&FS crisis in 2018

Yet another skeleton has tumbled out of the DHFL cupboards with its administrator filing additional affidavits in the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) Mumbai in connection with another fraud amounting to over Rs 1,424 crore.

DHFL, which is undergoing a corporate debt resolution process in the NCLT, is being run currently by an administrator in the aftermath of the IL&FS crisis in 2018.

The DHFL administrator had appointed Grant Thornton as transaction auditor to investigate the affairs of the company which in its initial report pointed out that certain transactions are undervalued, fraudulent and preferential.

Based on the investigation and observations of the transaction auditor, the administrator has filed two affidavits that are in addition to the two already filed before the Mumbai bench of the NCLT on 4 March 2021, in respect of disbursements made to certain entities as inter-corporate deposits (ICDs), against Kapil Wadhawan, Dheeraj Wadhawan, Township Developers India Ltd and entities to whom ICDs were given, DHFL said.

The estimated amount involved in the fraud places the monetary impact of the concerned transactions at approximately Rs 1,424.32 crore that occurred during 2017-18 and 2018-19. This includes Rs 29.94 crore towards notional loss of interest on account of charging a lower rate of interest, the company said based on the findings of the auditor.

The company had in February reported a fraud involving over Rs 6,180 crore. It keeps informing the NCLT about such findings as and when it discovers them.

DHFL owed Rs 83,873 crore to banks, National Housing Board, mutual funds and bondholders/retail bondholders as of July 2019.