International - India & World   

U.K. Indian jailed for “biggest” bank fraud

LONDON: Jagmeet Channa, a bank employee of Indian origin, has been jailed for nine years after being found guilty of attempting to steal £72 million from the HSBC bank in what has been described as one of the biggest frauds in Britain’s banking history.

Channa (25), who had no previous criminal record and was described by his family and friends as a quiet and hard-working “boy,” used passwords of two of his colleagues to transfer 90 million euros (£71,632,807) from the bank’s headquarters at Canary Wharf, where he worked, to two foreign accounts within minutes of each other on April 18.

It was stated that had he not made a small technical error, the fraud would have never been detected.

“This was no silly prank. This was a carefully planned and very serious attempt to transfer a fortune in money away, and it almost succeeded.

Others were involved, perhaps several others, and in the absence of any explanation from you I must assume this was a planned and sophisticated criminal enterprise,” the judge said sentencing him at Southwark Crown Court.

Mr. Channa, who lived with his family in an East London suburb, admitted to a conspiracy to defraud and money laundering but refused to disclose the identity of his co-conspirators.

Police believed that he was working at the behest of a criminal syndicate in return for a substantial cut. Describing it as an “audacious and outrageous” crime, the prosecution told the court that Mr. Channa first sent 60 million euros (£47,970,227) from a trading account to Morocco and then within minutes transferred another 30 million euros (£23,984,113) to a branch of Barclays in Manchester. The fraud was detected as Mr. Channa forgot to leave the raided account with zero balance.

HSBC staff in Malaysia suspected that something was wrong and alerted the bank’s London headquarters triggering an investigation and leading to Mr. Channa’s arrest.

“This crime is believed to be one of the largest frauds of its kind and it is thanks to the prompt response of the police and the banks that the money was recovered,” said a senior police officer.

It is still a mystery why he has refused to disclose the identity of the syndicate behind the fraud.

Printer friendly page  
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Stories in this Section

Fears rise over U.S. “hot pursuit” into Pakistan
Peace deal closer than ever: Olmert
France challenges U.S. diplomacy in W. Asia
32 Tigers killed, says Colombo
Al-Jazeera fined
Madhes demand leaves many “confused”
In flying spirits
No decision on transit: Dhaka
U.K. Indian jailed for “biggest” bank fraud
Pakistan seeks removal of ‘air of mistrust’

Copyright © 2008, The Hindu. Republication or redissemination of the contents of this screen are expressly prohibited without the written consent of The Hindu