First complaint lodged in Citibank fraud case, top brass named (Second Lead)

GURGAON - A businessman Tuesday filed a cheating complaint against Citibank and 11 others, including Citigroup’s chief executive officer Vikram Pandit and manager Shivraj Puri, and sought the recovery of Rs.32 crore invested by him, police said.

Citigroup chairman William R. Rhodes, chief financial officer John Gerspach and chief operating officer Douglas Peterson were also named in the first information report (FIR) filed by Sanjeev Agrawal.

In his complaint given to DLF-II police station, Agrawal accused Puri and others of falsification of accounts, breach of trust and criminal conspiracy.

It is the first such police complaint filed in the estimated Rs.300 crore fraud allegedly masterminded by Shivraj Puri.

Working as a relationship manager, Shivraj allegedly cheated investors by asking them to deposit money into accounts managed by him, promising to invest it in schemes that offer very high interest within a short span of time.

Puri reportedly managed to con companies and high net worth individuals after forging Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) documents backing his claims.

Shivraj’s parents Raghuraj and Deeksha Puri were, meanwhile, summoned by the Gurgaon Police Tuesday to assist them in investigations.

Gurgaon Police Commissioner S.S. Deswal Tuesday sent a letter to Raghuraj’s Mumbai-based company Normans Martin as the parents remain untraceable, said a police officer, requesting anonymity.

The police also unearthed eight accounts of the company in Citibank’s Gurgaon branch, the police officer added.