After PNB, City Union Bank detects scam worth USD 2 million; funds transferred to China, Dubai

Days after India’s biggest banking scam worth over Rs 11,000 crore in Punjab National Bank, City Union Bank on Saturday said it detected fraudulent remittances of nearly USD 2 million (about Rs 12.8 crore).

“During our reconciliation process on February 7, it was found out that 3 fraudulent remittances had gone through our SWIFT system to our correspondent banks which were not initiated from our bank’s end. We immediately alerted the correspondent banks to recall the funds,” City Union Bank informed the Bombay Stock Exchange.

According to the bank, one out of total three remittances was made through Standard Chartered Bank, New York to a Dubai based bank while another was made through the same Standard Chartered Bank in Frankfurt to a Turkish account.

The third payment worth USD 1 million was made from a Bank of America account to a China-based bank.

The first transaction was blocked immediately and returned to the concerned bank, while for another two, the City Union Bank is in contacts with MEA in Turkey and China to repatriate the money lost.

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Chennai-based City Union Bank said the transfers had been made through correspondent banks even though it had not requested the transfers, reported PTI.

In what could be India’s biggest scam in the banking sector, Punjab National Bank last week filed an FIR with the CBI about the fraudulent transactions worth over Rs 11,000 crore.

Since then, both Congress and BJP are busy blaming each other for the PNB scam while key accused Diamond czar Nirav Modi, his uncle Mehul Choksi are still on the run and the government has no clue about their whereabouts.