BackPNB fraud: SBI freezes 3 accounts of Nirav Modi group companies
Though these accounts are not directly related to PNB fraud, SBI has shared their details with the investigating agencies probing the $2 billion scam
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New Delhi: State Bank of India (SBI) has frozen three bank accounts of Nirav Modi group companies and shared the information related to those accounts with investigative agencies, bank officials said on Thursday.
Billionaire jeweller Nirav Modi is at the centre of the $2 billion PNB fraud.
“We have proactively conducted internal scrutiny and came across three deposit accounts of the Nirav Modi group companies in our overseas branches," the officials told PTI.
These accounts were with the three overseas SBI branches at Dubai, Bahrain and Antwerp, officials said. The bank found out these accounts after internal scrutiny, the officials said, adding these accounts are not directly related to the PNB fraud of nearly Rs12,600 crore. However, these could help in investigation so the bank shared the details with the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), the Enforcement Directorate (ED), the income tax department and other relevant agencies.
SBI, which has exposure of $212 million to the Nirav Modi fraud, expects Punjab National Bank (PNB) to clear the bank’s dues in the fraud case.
“As far as our exposure is concerned on PNB, that number is very much confirmed, calculated and advised to PNB," SBI Chairman Rajnish Kumar had said in an interview to TV channel CNBC-TV18. “I am very much confident that things will get sorted out between PNB and other banks."
He had said the exposure of SBI to Gitanjali Gems—one of the companies involved in the PNB fraud—has also been crystallized and there was no issue on that. “So our numbers, our claim is clear because there are some secondary market purchases, so double counting has to be avoided," the SBI chairman had said.
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