Goldman Sachs India executive held for Rs 38-cr fraud

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SME Times News Bureau | 10 Sep, 2019
Global financial services firm Goldman Sachs India executive Ashwini Jhunjhunwala was arrested here for allegedly transferring Rs 38 crore ($5.4 million ) from the company's account to his personal accounts online to pay off debts incurred in poker game (gambling), police said on Tuesday.

"On a written complaint by the company's Indian subsidiary here, we arrested 36-year-old Jhunhunwala under section 420 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) on late Monday and produced him in a local court on Tuesday," Marathahalli Circle Inspector S.P. Girish told IANS.

According to preliminary investigation, Jhunjunwala, who was looking after the company's forex and equity settlement claims, transferred the money online from his colleagues' computers over the months to avoid detection and escape being caught.

"The vice-president's modus operandi in siphoning off the company's money was to access the finance manager's account when the latter was away from the seat on errands and transfer the amounts online to his accounts in India and overseas. He was caught recently (September 4) when doing such transactions," Bengaluru East Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP) M.N. Anucheth told IANS here.

The accused was caught on the basis of video footage from the closed circuit television cameras (CCTVs) that are present in the company's office, which showed the executive using others workstations.

"The transactions timings tallied with that of the videos which recorded and showed the executive using computers of his associates for committing the fraud," pointed out Girish.

Relevant sections of the IPC were also applied on him for the alleged cheating and criminal breach of trust.

In a complaint to the police, the company's legal counsel alleged that Jhunjhunwala was trying to make up for the losses he incurred in the online gambling. One of the accounts in which the money was transferred was traced to be a shell company (Synergy Wisdom Ltd) in Hong Kong in which he had invested.

"When confronted with video clip of the crime, the accused tried to wriggle out by saying he was only evaluating his colleagues performance on their computers," added the DCP.