Citi to compensate affected customers

Citibank, which has been hit by a Rs 400 crore fraud at its Gurgaon branch, today said it is reconciling its accounts and working out a "fair compensation" for those customers affected by it.

"This process will happen over a period of time. We would like to thank our customers for their patience and co-operation," the bank said in a statement.

"We have since been in contact with our impacted customers and are committed to safeguarding our customers' legitimate interests," it added.

The global banking major said that it has been reconciling amounts involved with impacted customers to arrive at the compensation package.

"We will also continue to support the investigating authorities fully until this matter is resolved and brought to its logical conclusion," the statement said.

The bank has been in touch with its impacted customers and is fully committed to safeguarding their legitimate interests, it said in a statement here.

"As we have stated earlier, we identified suspicious transactions at our Gurgaon Branch in early December and immediately reported the matter to law enforcement and regulatory authorities," the statement said.

One of its employees, Shivraj Puri, is accused of luring 40 high net-worth individuals and corporate entities to invest in a bogus investment scheme on the pretext of high returns, while diverting the funds to the stockmarket.

Victims of the fraud include big names such as the promoters of the Hero Group (Rs 250-crore) and Helion Advisors Managing Director, Sanjeev Aggarwal (Rs 33-crore).

Yesterday, Puri was remanded to 14 days judicial custody (till January 28) by a local court. He was initially taken into seven days police custody on December 30 last year after the scam was detected.

Later, the police remand of Puri was extended for six days on January 6 and then, subsequently, for two days on January 12.