Indian businessman files complaint against Citibank over fraud

An Indian businessman Tuesday filed a cheating complaint against Citibank and 11 others, including Citigroup's chief executive officer Vikram Pandit and manager Shivraj Puri in the city of Gurgaon near here, reported the Indo-Asian News Service.

The businessman, Sanjeev Agrawal, also sought the recovery of 320 million rupees (about 7 million U.S. dollars) invested by him, said the report.

Citigroup chairman William R. Rhodes, chief financial officer John Gerspach and chief operating officer Douglas Peterson were also named in the first information report (FIR) filed by Agrawal.

In his complaint given to police, Agrawal accused Puri and others of falsification of accounts, breach of trust and criminal conspiracy.

It is the first such police complaint filed in the estimated 3, 000 million rupeee (67 million U.S. dollars) fraud allegedly masterminded by Shivraj Puri.

Indian police last Thursday arrested Puri for allegedly duping some high-value clients out of millions of dollars at Citibank's DLF Phase II branch.

The alleged fraud was discovered earlier this month. Puri, 32, is said to have allegedly duped some high-value customers of the branch into investing money in a bogus scheme by assuring them of high returns. But, he later funneled the money into accounts controlled by three relatives.

Though Citibank is yet to publicly declare a figure, police claim that at least 20 million U.S. dollars may have been stolen already.

Working as a relationship manager, Puri allegedly cheated investors by asking them to deposit money into accounts managed by him, promising to invest it in schemes that offer very high interest within a short span of time.

Puri reportedly managed to con companies and high net worth individuals after forging Securities and Exchange Board of India ( SEBI) documents backing his claims.
(Source:xinhua)