CBI books DHFL in biggest bank fraud of Rs 34K crore
New Delhi, June 22
The CBI has lodged an FIR against Dewan Housing Finance Ltd (DHFL), its ex-CMD Kapil Wadhawan, director Dheeraj Wadhawan and others for allegedly defrauding banks of Rs 34,615 crore.
With this, the CBI will now probe the biggest bank fraud case ever in India, officials said. Following the registration of the FIR on June 20, a team of over 50 CBI officials today searched 12 premises in Mumbai belonging to the persons named in the case, which include Sudhakar Shetty of Amaryllis Realtors and eight other builders. The action came on a complaint from the Union Bank of India (UBI), leader of 17-member lender consortium, which had extended credit facilities to the tune of Rs 42,871 crore between 2010 and 2018. The audit of DHFL account-books showed that the company allegedly committed financial irregularities to “create assets for Kapil and Dheeraj Wadhawan” using public money, it alleged. Both are in judicial custody in connection with other bank fraud cases.
When the DHFL was hit by investigation in January 2019 after media reports on allegations of siphoning of funds surfaced, the lender banks held a meeting on February 1, 2019, and appointed KPMG to conduct a “special review audit” of DHFL from April 1, 2015 to December 31, 2018. The DHFL and its promoters disbursed Rs 14,000 crore as Project Finance, but reflected the same as retail loans in their books. “This led to creation of inflated retail loans portfolio of 1,81,664 false and non-existent retail loans aggregating Rs 14,095 crore outstanding,” the CBI alleged.
