- Written by Geeta Pandey
- BBC News, Delhi
image source, shveta sharma
Shveta Sharma accuses bank manager of setting up elaborate scam on her
An Indian woman has accused the manager of one of the country’s largest banks of fraud by siphoning 160 million rupees ($1.9 million, £1.5 million) from her account.
Shveta Sharma said she transferred money from her US account to ICICI Bank with the hope that it would be invested in fixed deposits.
But she alleges that bank officials “created a fake account, forged her signature, and took a debit card and checkbook in her name” to withdraw money from her account.
“He gave me fake statements, created a fake email ID in my name, and manipulated my mobile number in my bank records to prevent me from receiving withdrawal notifications. ‘ she told the BBC.
A spokesperson for the bank confirmed to the BBC that “there was indeed a fraud” but said ICICI was “a reputable bank with trillions of rupees in deposits from millions of customers”. Stated.
“Anyone involved will be punished,” he added.
Sharma and her husband, who returned to India in 2016 after living in the US and Hong Kong for decades, met a banker through a friend.
Since interest rates on bank deposits in the United States were negligible, he advised Sharma to move his money to India, where interest rates on fixed deposits were 5.5% to 6%.
She followed his advice to open an NRE account for non-resident Indians after visiting the ICICI branch in the old Gurugram, near the capital Delhi, and began transferring money from her US account to it in 2019.
“In the four years from September 2019 to December 2023, we banked a total lifetime savings of around Rs 135 million,” she said, adding, “Including interest, the amount is Rs. It would have ballooned to over Rs 600 million,” he added.
She said the branch manager “gives me proper receipts for all deposits on bank stationery, regularly emails me statements from my ICICI account, and sometimes even comes over with a folder of documents.” “There was,” he said, so he didn’t think anything was wrong.
The fraud was discovered in early January when a new employee at the bank offered to increase Sharma’s financial returns.
That’s when she realized that all her term deposits were gone. There was also an overdraft of Rs 25 million on one of the deposits.
image source, Getty Images
ICICI is India’s second largest bank
“My husband and I were shocked. I have an autoimmune disease and it was so traumatizing that I couldn’t get out of bed for a whole week,” she said. “Your life is being ruined right before your eyes and there’s nothing you can do about it.”
Sharma said he shared all the information with the bank and had multiple meetings with executives.
“At our first meeting on January 16, we met the bank’s regional and regional directors who had flown in from Mumbai, as well as the bank’s internal vigilance officer. , told us that the branch manager admitted to wrongdoing.”
“They assured me they would give me a full refund, but first they said they needed my help to identify fraudulent transactions.”
Sharma and her team of accountants spent days poring over statements from the past four years. Her accountant then worked with a vigilance team to mark transactions that were “100% certain” to be fraudulent.
“It was shocking when I actually found out how the money was siphoned out of my account and where it was spent.”
Sharma said more than six weeks later, he is still waiting to get his money back, despite assurances from the bank that the problem would be resolved within two weeks.
Meanwhile, she wrote to the CEO and deputy CEO of ICICI and lodged a complaint with the Reserve Bank of India (central bank) and the Economic Offenses Wing (EOW) of the Delhi Police, which deals with financial crimes.
In a statement sent to the BBC, the bank said it had offered to deposit R92.7 million into her account with a lien pending the outcome of the investigation.
However, Sharma rejected this offer. “It’s much less than the R160 million they owe me, and the lien effectively means the account will be frozen until the police solve the case, which could take years. There is a gender.”
“Why am I being punished for no fault of my own? My life has changed forever. I can’t sleep. I have nightmares every day,” she added.
image source, Getty Images
Shveta Sharma says she lost 160 million rupees
Srikanth L, who runs a fintech watchdog called Cashless Consumer, said such cases are not that common and banks use audits and checks to ensure such things don’t happen. He said that
But if a bank manager decides to scam you, there’s little you can do, he says.
“She had implicit trust in him because he was the bank manager. But customers have to be more vigilant. They don’t want money to flow out of their accounts. You have to constantly monitor it.”
“Lack of double-checking on the part of the customer can lead to this type of fraud,” he added.
This is the second time this month alone that ICICI Bank has been in the news for the wrong reasons.
Early this month, rajasthan police The bank manager and his close aides said they had duped depositors out of billions of rupees over the years to meet targets set by the bank.
Police say they withdrew cash from customers’ accounts and used it to open new checking and savings accounts and set up term deposits.
An ICICI spokesperson said the bank acted swiftly in the matter and took action against the executives involved. He added that none of his customers lost money.
In Sharma’s case, he said it was “perplexing” that she had “not been aware of these transactions or account balances for the past three years and only recently noticed discrepancies in her account balances”.
He said the accused branch manager “has been suspended pending an investigation,” adding: “We were also defrauded.”
“We have also filed a complaint with the EOW but we will have to wait until the police investigation is completed. If her claims are proven true, she will get back the full amount along with interest.” But unfortunately, she has to wait. “
The BBC was unable to contact the manager for comment.