ED files plaints on 2 ex-officials of insurance firm, ICICI Bank

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) filed prosecution complaints against former officials of state-run Oriental Insurance Company and privately-run ICICI Bank for their alleged involvement in money laundering and acquiring properties illegally.

“Prosecution complaints have been filed against former Oriental Insurance Company Ltd’s administrative officer T. Pradeep at Dharwad and former ICICI Bank’s cluster manager Vijayasarathi at its Vijayapura branch in Karnataka under the provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), 2002,” said an official of the economic intelligence agency in a statement here.

Dharwad is 430km and Vijayapura 525km northwest of Bengaluru in the southern state.

“Pradeep had acquired proceeds of the crime by misusing his authority and fraudulently transferred the insurance firm’s fund to third-party beneficiaries and amassed movable property valued at Rs. 1.39 lakh,” said the official.

The law enforcing agency initiated money laundering investigation based on an FIR (first information report) filed by the CBI and Karnataka’s Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) on April 12, 2014 and the charge-sheet against Pradeep under various sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC), the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988 and section 66-C of the Information Technology Act, 2000 on November 11, 2015.

“Investigations revealed Pradeep committed fraud by transferring Rs. 5.03 crore from the company’s account to third parties from July 2, 2013 to March 26, 2014. The beneficiaries were fictitious,” noted the official.

In the ICICI Bank cheating case, besides Vijayasarathi, 5 others were also accused of money laundering under the PMLA.

“Vijayasarathi and his 5 associates acquired the proceeds of crime by cheating their bank and bought movable and immovable properties, including houses and agricultural lands in Bengaluru, Vijayapura, Belagavi and Udupi districts across the state collectively valued at Rs. 5.31 crore,” said the statement.

The five accused are the bank’s another employee Sachin Annappa Patil and his associates Renuka Shetty, Sudeep Shetty, Sajjade Peeran Mushrif and Vijayendra.

The accused also amassed properties in the form of cash and bank accounts worth Rs. 6.53 crore and gold and silver jewellery valued at Rs. 27 lakh.

“Money laundering investigation was initiated against the accused based on 4 FIRs registered at the APMC police station at Vijayapura and the FIRs transferred to the CID (Corps of Detectives) in Bengaluru for investigation,” said the statement.

Investigations also revealed that Vijayasarathi and Patil committed fraud to the tune of Rs. 70.44 crore by using cancelled cheques, unused cheques, through fraudulent transfers, issuing fake fixed deposit receipts and not crediting cash, which was received for credit in the accounts of the bank, BDCC Bank and Siddeshwara Co-operative Bank.

The complaints in both the cases were filed in the special court for PMLA at Mangaluru in the state’s west coast, about 360 km from Bengaluru, with a prayer for awarding punishment to the accused and confiscation of attached assets.