Sunday, May 20, 2018

CIB books 148 for Apex scam

The Central Investigation Bureau (CIB) of Nepal Police has filed a case of banking fraud against 148 persons allegedly involved in Apex Development Bank scam.
The CIB – after investigating the alleged fake documents for two months – has submitted the report to the Office of Special Government Attorney in Lalitpur, today. The accused have been charged under the Banking Offence and Punishment Act.
On March 16, police had arrested 21 people, including staff, board of directors, borrowers, valuators and former chief executive officer Bishnu Prasad Dhital of the erstwhile Apex Development Bank for indulging in unethical loan releases.
According to the CIB officials, the alleged masterminds of the fraud – Govinda Upadhyaya and Basanta Malla – are hiding in the US. The CIB plans to request the Interpol to issue a diffusion notice against them, though it is not sure that the US will handover them as earlier also the US has refused to handover an alleged banking fraud.
The CIB arrested the bank staffs as they have been accused of releasing loans amounting to Rs 1.50 billion through fake loan documents, insufficient collateral and other illegal means from Durbar Marg, Lokanthali, Itahari, Surkhet and Nepalgunj branches. However, the Apex Development Bank and Nepal Credit and Commerce (NCC) Bank had merged a few months ago.
The accused are said to have been involved in fake transactions during post-merger integration between NCC Bank and Apex Development Bank.
According to CIB, out of the 128 bank scam files, some 33 are from Itahari, seven from Surkhet and 13 from Nepalgunj. The CIB went through 85 files before filing a case based on the findings of those files. According to the police, it will take time to complete the investigation of total amount that was siphoned from Itahari, Surkhet and Nepalgunj branches.

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