Alert Issued at Airports for ABG Shipyard’s Bosses in Rs 23,000 Crore Bank Fraud

ABG Shipyard indulged in illegal activities like diversion of funds, criminal breach of trust, and misappropriation.

ABG Shipyard, a flagship company of the ABG Group, is a shipbuilding company based in Mumbai.

(Photo courtesy: Quint Hindi)

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Tuesday, 15 February, issued lookout circulars against ABG Shipyard bosses and senior executives in the Rs 23,000 crore bank fraud case.

A lookout circular restricts an alleged person wanted by law enforcement authorities from leaving the country via border crossings or airports.

This comes days after the CBI, in their biggest bank fraud case yet, booked the company and its directors Rishi Agarwal, Santhanam Muthuswamy, and Ashwini Kumar for allegedly defrauding 28 banks of Rs 22,842 crore.

ABG Shipyard, a flagship company of the ABG Group, is a shipbuilding company based in Mumbai, the shipyards of which are located in Gujarat's Dahej and Surat.

Lookout circulars have previously been issued for Nirav Modi, Mehul Choksi, Vijay Mallya, among others.

Accused Have Been Located in India, Says CBI

The CBI said on Monday that they had conducted searched at 13 locations on 12 February.

"Incriminating documents, such as books of accounts of accused borrower company, purchase/sales details, minutes of meetings of Board, share registers, various contract files were recovered," the CBI said on Tuesday, 15 February.

"Bank account details of the accused, as well as related parties, obtained. Accused have been located in India. Subsequently, LOCs against the accused have already been opened by CBI. Earlier, State Bank of India had also opened LOCs against the main accused in 2019," the CBI further said.

"In between April 2019 and March 2020, various banks of the consortium declared the account of ABG Shipyard as fraud. The fraud is primarily on account of huge transfer by ABG Shipyard to its related parties and subsequently making adjustment entries," the CBI said in a statement.

The CBI said that huge investments were made in its overseas subsidiary by diverting the bank loans.

"Funds were diverted to purchase huge assets in the name of its related parties. During the perusal of records and initial investigation, it is seen that the critical period was 2005-2012," the CBI added.

The Forensic Audit showed that between the years 2012-17, ABG Shipyard and others had conspired together and indulged in illegal activities like diversion of funds, criminal breach of trust, and misappropriation.

"They took a loan of Rs 1,228 crore from Indian Overseas Bank, Rs 1,244 crore from Punjab National Bank, Rs 1,614 crore from Bank of Baroda, Rs 7,089 crore from ICICI Bank and Rs 3,634 crore from IDBI Bank. Later, they didn't pay the bank their dues. Initially, SBI started an internal inquiry in which it was found that the company was cheating the consortium of banks by diverting funds to different entities," a CBI official had earlier said.

According to the CBI, the withdrawal of "general consent" by the state governments has led to a more challenging process of filing bank fraud cases.

"There are some 100 high-value bank fraud cases that could not be registered due to non-accordance of specific consent... by state governments where the general consent has been withdrawn," the CBI said in the statement.

However, this will have little impact on the ABG Shipyard case as it was filed in Delhi, where CBI has the original jurisdiction.

(With inputs from NDTV and IANS.)