Cobrapost expose II: Big PSUs named, banks facilitate forged PAN cards

In his second expose on irregularities in the Indian financial system, Aniruddha Bahal on Monday accused 23 public and private financial institutions of facilitating money laundering.

Cobrapost has named public banks including State Bank of India, Canara Bank, IDBI, Punjab National Bank, Oriental Bank of Commerce and Central Bank.

The Cobrapost investigations were conducted for more than half a year in many states including Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Delhi, Haryana, Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka.

The second round of secret videos claim to reveal violation of several provisions of the Income Tax Act, FEMA, RBI regulations, KYC norms, the Banking Act, said Bahal in a press conference today.

“The revelations amounts to crystal clear offenses under IPC as well as the PMLA (Prevention of Money laundering Act),” said Bahal.

He also alleged that banks accept unaccounted cash and invest them into insurance products and said that banks split transactions among themselves to avoid detection of money laundering.

“Money laundering services are being offered openly as a standard product across the board. Even a walk-in customer can avail of such services that help him launder all his unaccounted cash. Money laundering practices are part and parcel of banking and insurance business across the board,” added Bahal.

The expose has named Andhra politician Sailijanath Saake in the money laundering expose and also alleged that senior bank executives personally go to collect cash to help customers launder black money.

According to the expose, banks provide facilities to customers such as multiple lockers and machines to count money.

For money laundering, banks enable creation of forged pan cards and multiple accounts, said Bahal, adding that they advise investors to maintain fictitious accounts for seven years saying that all details vanish after this period.