Nirav scam: Serious fraud office to quiz execs of 31 banks

Mumbai: The Serious Fraud Investigation Office (SFIO) has written to heads of 31

banks

that are lenders to

Nirav

Modi and Mehul Choksi groups, asking for senior executives to be present for questioning in connection with the Rs 12,600 crore fraud.

The SFIO on Tuesday recorded the statement of a deputy MD of Axis Bank and a senior executive of ICICI Bank. On Wednesday, a senior executive of PNB is expected to visit the SFIO office to record his statement. The 31 lenders include 20 public sector banks and nine private and multinational banks.

On Tuesday, Axis Bank deputy managing director V Srinivasan was seen returning from the SFIO along with a few of his colleagues. ICICI Bank did not divulge the name of the senior executive who attended the meeting. However, it is learnt that none of the executive directors attended it.

The government officials are understood to have sought information on the size of exposure, when the loan was sanctioned, whether it was delinquent, and who were the representatives from the Modi and Choksi companies who had approached the banks.

While ICICI Bank is the leader of the consortium of banks, Axis Bank had the largest loan exposure to Punjab National Bank through the fraudulent LoUs. The bank had informed the stock exchange that it has sold all the loans that were advanced to suppliers against the letters of guarantee provided by PNB. Shares of Axis Bank fell 2.6% to Rs 295 while Axis Bank dropped 6.8% to Rs 516.

The ICICI-bank led consortium of 31 banks is understood to have collective exposure of around Rs 6,800 crore to Gitanjali Gems, a part of the Mehul Choksi group. Banks are understood to have an additional Rs 2,000 crore loan exposure to Nirav Modi group companies. This is in addition to the Rs 12,600 crore exposure to the unauthorized letter of undertakings issued in favour of Modi and Choksi group companies.

ICICI Bank officials repeated their earlier statement issued to the exchange that it is cooperating with the authorities. It reiterated that the bank has no exposure to Nirav Modi and has not provided any credit against the letters of undertakings. It confirmed that the bank is a working capital lender to Gitanjali but is not the largest lender in the consortium.


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