Nepal Bankers Association (NBA) -- a representative body of commercial banks -- had taken the decision to protect the implicated banks to ´protect the image of banks´ and issued warning of protest against ´possible malafide´ action against the banks and their staffs by DRI, which has been investigating into a scam in which around IRs 1.24 billion ( Rs 1.98 billion) was funneled out by some Nepali banks in the name of fake imports.[break]
The almost-completed investigation by DRI showed that eight shady traders based in Birgunj were largely behind the siphoning off the huge amount of IC from Nepali banking system by producing fake import documents from customs.
“The threats from bankers doesn´t deter us from taking action against those found guilty of assisting the traders to draw huge amount of IC without verification of documents. Instead of issuing warnings, they should have announced to correct their weakness,” Rajan Sharma, deputy director general of the DRI told Republica on Thursday.
Sharma also said a single person was found to have withdrawn over Rs 600 million from a bank by producing fake customs declaration form showing fake imports from India.
“We found negligence by bank staffs who didn´t feel it necessary to verify the signature of customs officials in the customs declaration forms,” added Sharma. He also informed that DRI was planning to file case against those found involved in the IC misappropriation racket by mid-March.
Existing norms require bank staffs to cross-check authenticity of documents before issuing payment drafts.
The banks being investigated by DRI are Citizens Bank International, NIC Bank, Everest Bank, Nepal SBI Bank, Nepal Bank Limited, Siddhartha Bank, Laxmi Bank, Nepal Investment Bank and Nepal Bangladesh Bank.
In this connection, DRI has completed recording the statements of bank staffs, customs agents and five traders involved in the case.
DRI had traced the IC misappropriations when it raided Birgunj-based firms Laxmi Traders, Rehan Traders, Maha Laxmi Enterprises, Shyam Galla Store, GS Traders, Maxwell Computers, Digital World and Jay Mata Di International.
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