Investigators from the Economic Offences Wing (EOW) of the Odisha Police arrested six individuals who established a fake ‘corporate office’ for PhonePe Group, one of India’s leading payment gateways, in a posh building in Bhubaneswar. The group, which committed the fraud between November 2022 and October 2023, fabricated salary slips with inflated packages and siphoned off loan of ₹16.71 crore through 161 transactions from different branches of the State Bank of India before fleeing.
The case came to light when Shiba Sundara Sahoo, Regional Manager, State Bank of India, Bhubaneswar lodged a written complaint alleging that that the accused persons by entering into a conspiracy availed 161 Xpress Credit Loans amounting to ₹16.71 crore from four different branches in Bhubaneswar. He further alleged that these men produced faked employment records as employees of PhonePe Private Limited.
According to the EOW, one Anirbana Patnaik had rented a grand office space at DLF, Patia in Bhubaneswar for his company, Purvi Venture Private Limited. However, in collusion with other fraudsters, the space was portrayed as the regional office of PhonePe by placing signboards and stickers bearing the company’s name.
The persons approached different branches of SBI at Bhubaneswar for Xpress Credit Loan (Personal Loan) by filing the inflated salary slip and the forged employment certificate of Phonepe. During pre-sanction visit, the bank employees appeared convinced about the office. Fake e-mail was used to give clearance during verification that the loan applicants are the employees of Phonepe.
Police are verifying Aadhaar, PAN, and other documents submitted for securing the loan. The investigators found that a fake email was used to falsely claim that the accused were employees of PhonePe. “To create the impression that the loanees had regular salaries, payments were made to their accounts on a specific date for three to four consecutive months. This gave the impression that these accounts were receiving monthly salary credits. When the loans became stressed due to non-repayment, suspicions of fraud arose, prompting an internal investigation that ultimately uncovered the deception,” the EOW said.
When asked as to how bank employees failed to detect any discrepancy in their income tax return and CIBIL score (loan history) online during sanction of fresh loan, the EOW Chief Jai Narayan Pankaj said, “The investigation into the case has just begun. We are also ascertaining possible involvement of bank employees in the fraud.”
The Superintendent of Police of EOW Dillip Tripathy concurred, “Investigation has been intensified to establish if bank employees sanctioned loan in good faith or criminal intent. If bank employees are found involved in fraud, they will definitely be taken task.”
Published - September 05, 2024 08:52 pm IST
