Rs.100 crore fraud unearthed in Gurgaon Citibank branch

GURGAON - A manager at the Gurgaon branch of Citibank siphoned off at least Rs.100 crore after luring customers into depositing money in the bank after promising to double the amount, police said Tuesday.

Shivraj Puri, a relationship manager at the bank, opened three accounts in the branch in the name of his relatives Premnath, Sheela and Deeksha.

“He asked customers to deposit the money in those accounts in a scheme to double their money. When the money was deposited, Puri transferred it into his account,” a police officer said.

“The bank officials are still not sure of the amount but at least Rs.100 crore was deposited in the three accounts. The amount could be higher,” he added.

A Citibank spokesperson said internal investigations were on.

We recently initiated an investigation into a certain set of suspicious transactions based on documents forged by an employee involving a few accounts in our Gurgaon branch. We immediately reported the matter to all the relevant regulatory and law enforcement authorities,” the spokesperson said.

“Identified suspicious transactions have been isolated and we are providing full assistance to the authorities in their investigations. This issue does not impact other accounts, transactions or customers of the bank,” the spokesperson added.

Cases of cheating and forgery were registered at the DLF Phase 2 police station Monday night, the police officer said.