Market Watch

Public Development Bank & Infrastructure Development Bank Cheif Frauds

Published by Octron on January 27, 2010

Nepal Rastra Bank (NRB) has filed fraud charges with Nepal Police against the chiefs of the Public Development Bank and the Infrastructure Development Bank, Kunda Bihari Kayal and Indra Prasad Humagain respectively, along with around 80 others.

A police source told us that the fraud charges were filed on the basis of a central bank investigation that reckons there has been a series of frauds running into millions of rupees. He also informed that the police will have to conduct an in-depth investigation to figure out the actual amount of fraud and that the charges have been forwarded to district police offices in districts where the banks are headquartered.

Public Development Bank is headquartered in Birgunj and it had a deposit base of Rs 185 million by the end of last fiscal year. Likewise, Infrastructure Development Bank is situated at Banepa of Kavre district. We started searching for the accused persons soon after the charges were filed and we will arrest them if they are in Kathmandu, Ganesh KC, chief of Metropolitan Police Range, Kathmandu said. However, Humagain told us that he has no knowledge of police filing charges against them and denied being involved in unlawful activity.

According to preliminary investigations by the central bank, the chiefs of the two banks were involved in purchasing rubber checks from each other and not sending them for clearance. As per NRB regulations, banks are required to send purchased checks for clearance within three working days. Investigations have found that they used such checks for subscribing to Initial Public Offerings of banks and financial institutions. Likewise, both of them have also been engaged in issuing fake appointment letters under various names and siphoning off perks and benefits to private bank accounts held at cooperatives run by individuals close to themselves. During the investigation, it was found that persons who were taking hefty perks and benefits based on the fake appointment letters never really existed, said an official of the central bank.

Likewise, the charge sheets also state that both of them were engaged in issuing fake loans to fictitious borrowers without fulfilling necessary requirements. Some of the loans lack basic documents like loan application, purpose of borrowing, business plan and repayment period, he said.

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