A woman of Indian descent, who came back to India from the US in 2016, has claimed that an ICICI Bank manager deceived her out of ₹ 13.5 crore by carrying out “fraudulent activities.”
The woman told the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) that she had deposited ₹ 13.5 crore in the ICICI Bank in order to invest it in fixed deposits, from her US bank account. In the upcoming years, she anticipated that the investment would increase to over ₹ 16 crore.
Shveta Sharma claims she got to know the accused bank manager through a friend after she and her husband moved to India in 2016.
Ms. Sharma claimed that after another bank employee gave her a better return, she found out in January of this year that all of her money had disappeared.
The ICICI Bank manager in question has been placed on leave “pending investigation.”
ICICI Bank’s Response
“We have communicated to the customer that we are ready to transfer the disputed amount of ₹ 9.27 crore (she has already encashed a fixed deposit of ₹ 2 crore) to her account with a lien, pending the outcome of the investigation,” ICICI bank said in a statement.
“The Bank has consistently sent transaction details to her registered mobile number and email ID since the accounts were opened a few years ago. It is bewildering that the customer claims to be unaware of these transactions and balances in her account over the past three years, and she only recently noticed a discrepancy in her account balance. This discrepancy ought to have been observed by the customer when filing Income Tax returns as well. She alleges that the mobile number and email ID of her account were changed without her knowledge. However, our records indicate that notifications regarding both changes were sent to her original mobile number and email address which were registered with the Bank. Furthermore, the new number is listed on the website of a company owned by the customer herself,” the bank said.
The ICICI bank said as an “aggrieved party”, they have “lodged a complaint with the Economic Offences Wing (EoW) of Delhi Police for a thorough investigation into the matter which appears to be much more than meets the eye. We are extending full cooperation to the Police investigation.”
