Nepal Police arrest 122 Chinese nationals suspected of cyber crime

Nepal Police today held some 122 Chinese nationals, who entered Nepal on tourist and student visas, on suspicion of their involvement in cyber and financial crime.
They were arrested from seven private residences – some 3 in Manamaiju and 2 each in Bansbari and Budhanilkantha – today. Police also confiscated a large number of laptops and mobile phones from their apartments, Central Investigation Bureau (CIB) under Nepal Police confirmed.
The operation was conducted by the CIB in coordination with Metropolitan Crime Division-Teku, Metropolitan Police Range-Teku, Metropolitan Police Office-Rani Pokhari and the Police Headquarters, the CIB said, adding that it is not known whether these Chinese nationals had valid visas to stay in Nepal or were overstaying.
The CIB is expecting to find out what exactly the Chinese nationals were doing in their rented apartments. “They were living secluded lives in rented apartments, which looked like offices,” the CIB said, adding that they also possessed special identity cards. “Anyone, who wanted to enter their apartments had to produce the IDs, which raised the eyebrows of police.”
The police said that they were arrested after monitoring their activities for few days using ‘urgent arrest warrants’, which allows police to detain suspects for up to 24 hours.
According to the CIB, most of the arrested Chinese nationals had visited Nepal on tourist visas but they were not engaged in touristic activities. “Some of them had also arrived in Nepal on student visas.”
Earlier, almost four months ago, police arrested some 6 Chinese nationals in connection with the the cyber heist in the banking sector, which saw illegal withdrawal of at least Rs 35.8 million from ATMs in Nepal and India.

Nepal Police to operate free bus service during festival

Nepal Police is operating free bus service from October 6 to 8 during the Dashain festival holiday.
The Police Headquarters is operating the bus service on two routes in the Kathmandu Valley, according to a press note. “The buses will be operated from 11 am to 4 pm,” it reads, adding that Route 1 includes Naxal, Jaya Nepal, Durbarmarga, Ratna Park, Nagsthan, Tripureshwor, Kalimati, Kalanki, Balkhu, Ekantakuna, Jawalakhel, Pulchok, Kupandol, Maitighar and Putalisadak. “Likewise, Route 2 comprises Maitidevi, Gaushala, Koteshwar, Tinkune, Babarmahal, Maitighar, Tripureshwor, Nagsthan, Jamal, Lainchaur, Lazimpat, Narayangopal Chok and Baluwatar.”
Police is operating two buses on these two routes for the convenience of the passengers during the festival, the press note from the Police Headquarters reads.

Police foil international racket planning to steal money from Nepali banks

Just weeks after the biggest ATM heist by Chinese nationals, more than Rs 15 million has been stolen from the Agricultural Development Bank Ltd (ADBL). But the Police arrested a dozen youth for their alleged involvement in masterminding this huge financial racket.
Metropolitan Police Crime Division (MPCD) Teku today revealed that a foreign national residing in India had been planning – for a considerable time – to steal over Rs 5 billion from various banks and financial institutions of Nepal via hacking, and using Nepalis. According to the Police, Peter – also known as Kale –currently residing in Mumbai of India has been involved in masterminding the huge financial racket with the help of Nepali nationals. “We have arrested some twelve persons for their alleged involvement in the case,” the Police said, adding that a special investigation team from MPCD arrested them from various areas within and outside Kathmandu Valley. “They were involved in stealing the money through the process of ‘credential hacking’ from various banks and financial institutions, including Agricultural Development Bank and Panas Remit,” the Police confirmed, identifying the arrestees as Lawang Tamang (43) of Meghang Rural Municipality-4 of Nuwakot district; Sanjay Ghale of Kavresthali, Tarkeshwar Municipality-2 in Kathmandu; Laxmi Lama Tamang (40), Nirmala Tamang (20), Nima Tamang (18), all from Naukunda Rural Municipality-5 of Rasuwa; Pushparaj Khadka (42) of Hariban Municipality-2 in Sarlahi; Bidyasagar Lamichhane (23) of Dordi Rural Municipality-3 in Lamjung; Shravan Kumar Shrestha (38) of Bhanu Municipality-9 in Tanahun; Sunita Shrestha (32) of Thimi Municipality-4 in Bhaktapur; Shubankar Panja (30), permanent resident of Kolkata in India, currently residing in Tebahal, Kathmandu; Bijay Sah (22), and Chandara Bahadur Budha (45), both from Bhajani Municipality in Kailali district.
According to the Police, the preliminary investigation indicates that a sum of Rs 47,396,000 was hacked from Agricultural Development Bank Ltd (ADBL). Likewise, a sum of Rs 1,200,000 was stolen from Panas Remit in New Baneshwar.
Spokesperson at the ADBL head office in Kathmandu Him Lal Poudel, however, claimed that the incident occurred due to misuse of password. He suspected that it was not a case of hacking. “The amount stolen by the perpetrators ranged between Rs 15 million and Rs 20 million,” he said adding that the bank has started an internal investigation into the incident alongside police.
“Further investigation is going on to determine the total amount hacked,” the Police also informed, disclosing that Peter used to contact the Nepalis, call them to India for meetings, and then asked them to carry out the fraud offering commission ranging from 15 per cent to 35 per cent. “Peter then made them send the remaining sum to India via hundi.”
Suspecting the illegal transactions on September 22, staffers of Panas Remit asked the Police to investigate, which led to the arrest of 12 Nepalis.
Some Rs 6 million has been collected by different people in a day from the financial institution. The remittance sender was shown to be the same person, an employee of the company, which has raised suspicion that someone has hacked the employee’s account to send the same sum of money multiple times. “The Police started a full-fledged investigation after the staffers from the Panas Remit complained of the suspicious transactions,” the Police said, adding that the same mastermind also manipulated user-id and IP address of Agricultural Development Bank Ltd (ADBL) to transfer the money into the accounts of 11 different persons. “Further investigation into the case is going on.”

Police arrest former BoK chief executive Shrestha on charge of banking offence

Police arrested former chief executive officer of Bank of Kathmandu (BoK) Ajaya Shrestha and ten others on the charge of banking offence. The CIB has also arrested debtor Surendra Shrestha, confirmed CIB spokesperson Bel Bahadur Pandey.
Central Investigation Bureau (CIB) under Nepal Police arrested former chief executive officer Shrestha, bank staffers Kiran Bohara, Richa Shrestha, Sushma Shah, Pushparaj Bhandari, Bikram Panta and among others – from various places on different dates recently – for alleged banking offence.
The bank officials are accused of issuing a bank loan of worth Rs 45 million to the debtors based on the forged documents produced by debtors, he said, adding that the bank officials are accused of facilitating the illegal transaction to purchase land in Kathmandu. 
The aforementioned individuals were arrested, according to the Pandey.
Of the detainees, two are former staffers of the bank, while three are incumbent staffers, the CIB informed, adding that the preliminary investigation has revealed that the debtors created fake land registration certificates to avail the loan from Bank of Kathmandu. “Later on, the debtors produced it as collateral to acquire the loan.”
The bankers have but shown serious concern on Shrestha's arrest as Shrestha is known as a gentleman banker among his fraternity.

Billions lost, dozens killed by rainstorm in Southern Nepal

At least 27 people were killed and more than 400 were injured in a severe wind and rainstorm that swept through two districts in southern Nepal yesterday evening.
Confirming the heavy rainstorm and windstorm in Bara and Parsa, chief district officer of Bara Rajesh Poudel said that the police and rescue personnel have been dispatched to the affected villages in Bara and Parsa. "But they could not reach the village due to heavy rain during the night," he said, adding that the office is coordinating with the local representatives to speed up the rescue operations. "Hospitals in both the districts have seen influx of the injured."
The local and provincial governments have been trying to reach the victims of the suspected tornado that has been witnessed in Nepal. "The trees have been uprooted due to heavy wind," the locals said, adding that they have not seen such devastating in their life. "The rainstorms hit just ahead of dinner time yesterday evening."
Most of the homes made from mud have collapsed as the electricity poles and trees fell on them, according to a local lawmaker, who visited the affected area. "I have not seen such devastation as the storm swept homes in the villages."
Though, the rescue teams from Nepal Police, Nepal Army and the Armed Police Force have been deployed overnight, the rough weather has been holding back the night vision helicopters to fly to the affected areas.
The provincial and federal government officials and ministers are preparing to fly to Province 2 to take stock of the rainstorm affected areas.
Likewise, losses to the agricultural, industrial and energy sectors are also expected to billions. Though, there has been no casualty reported from the industrial corridor of Bara and Parsa, industrial infrastructure has been destroyed. According to industrialists, the industrial corridors have seen huge loss of infrastructure as well as products.
According to vice-president of Birgunj Chamber of Commerce and Industry (BCCI) Anil Kumar Agrawal, most of the factories in the industrial area were damaged. "The windstorm blew away roofs of some industrial buildings damaging the products that were stored in buildings due to rain that followed the storm," he said, adding that almost all the industrial buildings have collapsed while roofs of a few remaining buildings were ripped away. "All the raw materials, machinery and other equipment have also been destroyed by the storm."
"Trishakti Cement, Kalash Cement and Bishwakarma Cement have witnessed major loss due to the storm."
The affected areas donot have power supply as all the electricity poles have been knocked down. "“The industrial area may have witnessed losses worth billions,” he said, adding that the actual loss can be calculated only after a few weeks when the situation normalise. "But the business fraternity has started distribution of relief materials despite their losses."
The Nepal Electricity Authority (NEA) estimated its losses to be around Rs150 million due to the damage to the electricity distribution system in Bara and Parsa districts. Around 2,000 electricity poles were knocked down by the powerful rainstorm.
The storm also damaged the 132 kV Parwanipur-Raxaul cross-border transmission line. Nepal has been importing 50 MW of electricity from India through the transmission line. The rainstorm also wrecked another 33 kV Birgunj-Raxaul cross-border transmission line that is being used to import 12 MW from the southern neighbour.
The storm damaged the 66 kV Parwanipur-Birgunj double-circuit line and the 33 kV Birgunj-Kalaiya line leading to a disruption in electricity supply in Birgunj city. According to the NEA, electricity supply from Kalaiya sub-station has been restored after maintenance.

Anti-Money Laundering case gone wrong

A man claims 'illegal money' in the US Court, dupes Nepal's finance ministry, foreign ministry and central bank easily and 'gets away' with $1 million, almost.
Its not the case of poor communication between the authorities rather a case of how deep the coruption is rooted in the bureaucracy and how one can 'influnce' the ministries and even the central bank.
Though, the central bank is still silence on the issue, the finance ministry has asked the Nepali embassy in Washington to get the detailed information on the case and forward the report to the US Court that the ministry sent today through courier.
The US Court had asked central bank and finance ministry on the claim of Asim Khatri Chhetri (KC) but the responsible authorities never received the letter.
"It proves that strong lobbying of KC inside the central bank and finance ministry," a senior central bank official said, adding that the letter never reached central bank governor or finance secretary but made its way back to the US Court that gave verdict on the basis of the
However, today the ministry has directed Nepali embassy in washington DC to hold talks with the US authority and clarify the government's stand on the case that is a clear case of money laundering.
In his petition to the US Court, KC had sought retrieval of the money he paid to Wu Lixian, a Chinese national for supplying logistics to the Nepal Army and Nepal Police.
The money was received in 2008 by Nepal Bangladesh Bank, Bhaisepati branch in the account of Chinese national Wu. But the bank suspecting something fishy reported the central bank instead of paying it to him.
"Neither the purchase has been made in Nepal nor the goods were delivered in Nepal," the finance ministry said, adding that the money has been however transferred to Nepal in a Nepali bank. "It is a clear case of Anti-Money Laundering but handled in a most unfortunate way."
But, this time around KC has 'almost' received the money after the US Court in New York issued a verdict in his favour two weeks ago.
Based on the court's verdict, Chase Bank that made the payment on July 14, 2008 had deducted $1 million from an account of Nepal Rastra Bank in New York to make the payment.

Revenue and Anti-Money Laundering Department gets cases
KATHMANDU: After the Anti-Money Laundering Act came into effect, the Revenue and Anti-Money Laundering Department has investigated 62 case. "Of them, three are finalised," said Mahesh Prasad Dahal, director general of the department. "Of the three also, one was fined Rs 600,000 as he could not provide the source of income of Rs 300,000," he said, adding that the remaining two got clean chit from the Special Court.