Sabhya Seth, a Karol Bagh-based jewellery exporter, and his business partners accused of cheating the Oriental Bank of Commerce of ₹389.85 crore fled the country in 2014, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) said here on Saturday.
The CBI, which registered an FIR against the accused on Friday, said the loans given to their companies were declared non-performing assets in 2014. But the bank filed the complaint only on August 16, 2017.
Third case
This is the third major bank fraud case reported in the past fortnight.
Those named in the FIR are Dwarka Das Seth International Private Ltd., its associate concern Dwarka Das Seth SEZ India Incorporation, proprietor Sabhya Seth and other directors, Reeta Seth, Krishna Kumar Singh and Ravi Kumar Singh. Bank officials are also under the scanner.
The CBI said the accused had got credit facilities between 2007 and 2012 and used Letters of Credit (LoC) issued by the bank to pay off other trade creditors against the purchase of gold and other precious stones. They then transferred the gold and funds abroad using fictitious trade transactions and paid off the LoC liabilities using them.
The bank alleged that Mr. Seth had orchestrated an elaborate plan for duping the bank. One Trade Chartered Bank has also been named for allegedly issuing LoCs without the request of foreign companies that made purchases from the accused.
As it turned out, the accused “exporters” were using the credit facility for discounting of bills under the LoCs established by various financial institutions. The process continued till the Oriental Bank of Commerce noticed that these banks were poorly rated and that the exposure was getting on the higher side.
