Rs 2000 Cr Hawala Scam, Operating Out of Mumbai, Exposed by DRI

Accounts opened with the help of stolen documents were used to move hundreds of crores out of the country.

United Payment Interface is a system that allows for instantaneous transfer of money. (Photo: Reuters)

A massive hawala scam has been unearthed by the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) which involves four nationalised banks and one private bank caught in the midst of a staggering Rs 2000 crore scam, reports the The Times of India.

According to the report, accounts opened from stolen documents were used to move hundreds of crore through hawala channels out of India between October last year and March 2016 from the banks’ south Mumbai branches.

DRI officials claim that account holders were unaware of the transactions being made using their accounts. One such account was of a cinema hall worker from Ulhasnagar which was used to siphon Rs 400 crore to a company based out of India.

Other such cases involved accounts opened in the names of ticket-checkers, sweepers working at Railway Station and roadside bhelpuri vendors. These accounts were used to send out hundreds of crores out of the country illegally.

A bogus company was set up from an office at Masjid Bunder. The office was vacated once the transactions were carried out. It’s a clear case of black money being sent to safe havens...A single company is involved in the fraud. Its address was shown at Masjid Bunder, and the accused used 12 import-export codes to claim that money was used to import goods from several South-East Asian countries.

DRI officer to <i>The Times of India</i>

Initial finding of the DRI investigations claim that the import-export codes revealed Rs 2,232 crore were sent to buy mostly electronic goods, but the actual import was worth Rs 25 crore.

DRI officials have suggested that it is believed that bank officials were involved in the scam. Initial findings reveal that the bank officials did not even bother to cross-check the money transfers, nor did they report any of the transactions to the Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU).

It is suspected that the fake entity was created by those involved in gems and jewellery trading to carry out this mega scam. Officials have revealed that several many other cases have also come to light where recently gold and diamonds have been smuggled into the country and the payment are made through hawala transactions to the sellers in the Gulf and South-East Asia.

(With inputs from The Times of India.)