SBI employee accused of Rs 90-lakh swindle

Mail Today 18th Feb 2008 P 6
The assistant manager of the bank’s credit card division is absconding
Showing how vulnerable credit card holders have become, an assistant manager of State Bank of India (SBI) cards has pulled off a massive Rs 90-lakh fraud. He transferred into his bank account funds from SBI card holders with high credit limits.Ironically, Ajay Shoken — the man identified as the employee who carried out the fraud and who was a resident of Paschim Vihar in West Delhi — was overseeing fraud control measures in SBI cards. He used his position to identify card holders with a large balance in their accounts and over five years, enriched himself by transferring huge sums into his bank accounts and those of his mother Shanti Devi, sister Amita Shoken and wife Rakhi Shoken.Shoken is on the run now, having dropped out of sight on February 5, and his employers believe he could try to flee the country.An FIR has been lodged by the assistant vice-president of the SBI Cards and Payment Services Private Limited at Delhi’s Parliament Street Police Station on February 8.The case came to light when HDFC Bank informed the SBI Cards that a “suspicious transaction” was detected in Shoken’s account. The matter was investigated further and it was found that the accused had used a highly unusual procedure to transfer funds directly from one credit card holder’s account to his own HDFC card. Probably his own handling of the fraud control mechanism at the SBI Cards helped him more in such a transaction.In the FIR, it has been alleged that Ajay Shoken, who was working with the company since 2003 as an assistant manager, used his position to commit the fraud. Since he was overseeing fraud control measures at SBI Cards, he could access confidential information regarding the clients.He diverted funds of various SBI card holders into his account and the accounts of his family members. SBI cards suspects that the scam may also go up to crores if further investigations are made into the matter involving more persons.Investigations by the company confirmed that money has been transferred from 13 various account holders. Further enquiry by the bank also revealed that there were six more credit card accounts of various banks where the funds were diverted by Shoken.When the SBI cards fraud control and investigation team carried out internal audit of the transactions, it discovered that there were about 100 transactions on various SBI cards of customers which amounted to more than Rs 90 lakh. For the last five years, the company was unaware of the ongoing fraud as Shoken had blocked sending options of credit card statements to the existing customers.Shoken would obtain demand drafts from various SBI card holders account and had them issued in favour of his relatives including his mother, Shanti Devi, sister, Amita Shoken and wife, Rakhi Shoken to the tune of lakhs of rupees.To ensure the fraud went undetected, Shoken created false entries and electronic records to show fraudulent permanent account reversal entries in the statements of different SBI card holders. When the investigations were carried out by the company, Shoken handed over his resignation. The company did not accept it but Shoken has been absconding since February 5, and the company fears that he might leave the country to escape the law.In order to save himself, he not only used his account, but also the accounts of his wife, sister and mother to transfer the huge funds. There were around six bank accounts of Shoken into which he transferred the balance from the different SBI cards. He did not send the bills that were generated to the SBI card holders from whose accounts he transferred the balance amounts.praveen.kumar@mailtoday.in

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