Operation Red Spider was an anti-money laundering sting operation of an online magazine, Cobrapost . Cobrapost released video footage, recorded largely by hidden cameras, showing high-ranking officials and some employees of the top three Indian banks suggesting to an undercover reporter methods to launder money. The officials offered safe deposit lockers to stash away the black money, accounts that did not adhere to Reserve Bank of India guidelines, and 'benami' (false) accounts to facilitate the conversion of the black money and keep the depositor's identity a secret. The editor of Cobrapost, Aniruddha Bahal, placed the video footage into the public domain on 14 March 2013. [1] [2] [3]
According to Rajiv Takru, Secretary of Financial Services, Government of India, all Indian government agencies and regulators worked together to probe charges. [4] On 14 March 2013 Reserve Bank of India conducted an inquiry into possible violation of its KYC (Know Your Customer) and AML (anti-money laundering) guidelines by ICICI Bank, HDFC Bank and Axis Bank. [5] [6] [7] Following the enquiry, penalty of Rs 5 crore on Axis Bank, Rs 4.5 crore on HDFC Bank and Rs 1 crore on ICICI Bank was imposed by RBI. [8]
On 15 March 2013 ICICI Bank suspended 18 employees. On 16 March 2013 HDFC Bank appointed Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu to carry out an independent forensic inquiry of bank employees who are encouraging customers to evade income tax. [9] [10] [11]
Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu Limited, commonly referred to as Deloitte, is a British multinational professional services network headquartered in London, England. Deloitte is the largest professional services network by revenue and number of professionals in the world and is considered one of the Big Four accounting firms along with EY, KPMG and PwC.
ICICI Bank Limited is an Indian multinational bank and financial services company headquartered in Mumbai with registered office in Vadodara. It offers a wide range of banking and financial services for corporate and retail customers through a variety of delivery channels and specialized subsidiaries in the areas of investment banking, life, non-life insurance, venture capital and asset management.
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Axis Bank Limited, formerly known as UTI Bank (1993–2007), is an Indian banking and financial services company headquartered in Mumbai, Maharashtra. It is India's third largest private sector bank by assets and Fourth largest by Market capitalisation.It sells financial services to large and mid-size companies, SMEs and retail businesses.
Chanda Kochhar is an Indian businesswoman who was the former managing director (MD), and chief executive officer (CEO) of ICICI Bank. Due to a case of conflict of interest, she resigned from her position in 2018. Subsequently, she was fired by ICICI Bank, a decision which was later upheld by the Supreme Court of India.
Infrastructure Leasing & Financial Services Limited (IL&FS) is an Indian state-funded infrastructure development and finance company. It was created by public sector banks and insurance companies.
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HDFC Life Insurance Company Limited is a long-term life insurance provider with its headquarters in Mumbai, offering individual and group insurance services and it was incorporated on 14 August 2000.
Dr Kanwar Deep Singh, also known as K. D. Singh, is an Indian businessman turned politician and Member of Parliament (MP), Rajya Sabha representing the All India Trinamool Congress, but first elected to the Indian parliament as a nominee of the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha. He is the founder and the former chairman of the Indian business group called Turbo Industries, whose name was changed and rebranded as the Alchemist Group in 2004. He was elected to lead the Indian Hockey Federation (IHF) between 2013 and 2014.
Cobrapost is a non-profit Indian news website that was founded in 2005 by Aniruddha Bahal – the co-founder of Tehelka. It is particularly known for its undercover investigative journalism.
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PhonePe is an Indian digital payments and financial services company headquartered in Bengaluru, Karnataka, India. PhonePe was founded in December 2015, by Sameer Nigam, Rahul Chari and Burzin Engineer. The PhonePe app, based on the Unified Payments Interface (UPI), went live in August 2016.
Piramal Capital and Housing Finance Limited is a non-deposit taking housing finance company, headquartered in Mumbai with branches in major cities across India. DHFL was established to enable access to economical housing finance to the lower and middle income groups in semi-urban and rural parts of India. DHFL is the second housing finance company to be established in the country. The company also leases commercial and residential premises. DHFL is among the 50 biggest financial companies in India.
The Punjab National Bank Fraud Case relates to fraudulent letter of undertaking worth ₹12,000 crore issued by the Punjab National Bank at its Brady House branch in Fort, Mumbai; making Punjab National Bank liable for the amount. The fraud was allegedly organized by jeweller and designer Nirav Modi. Nirav, his wife Ami Modi, brother Nishal Modi and uncle Mehul Choksi, all partners of the firms, M/s Diamond R US, M/s Solar Exports and M/s Stellar Diamonds; along with PNB officials and employees, and directors of Nirav Modi and Mehul Choksi's firms have all been named in a charge sheet by the CBI. Nirav Modi and his family absconded in early 2018, days before the news of the scam broke in India.
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