CBI files charge sheets against A C Muthiah for Rs 665 crore

The CBI has filed three charge sheets against former chairman of First Leasing Company of India Limited (FLCIL) and ex-BCCI chief A C Muthiah, and former Managing Director Farouk M Irani for allegedly cheating three banks to the tune of around Rs 665 crore, officials said today.
The probe agency has filed these charge sheets before a special CBI court in Chennai, they said here.
The charges levelled by the agency include criminal conspiracy, cheating and forgery among others, a CBI spokesperson said.
In the first case, it was alleged that key officials of FLCIL, in furtherance of a conspiracy with the statutory and internal auditors of the company, had availed various credit facilities from IDBI Bank with mala fide intentions to cheat it, the official said.

He said it was done on the basis of forged financial reports and funds were siphoned away for extraneous and personal purposes causing loss of Rs 273.99 crore to the bank.
In the second case, the accused had allegedly availed credit facilities from UCO Bank in the form of working capital limit and short term loans in the name of FLCIL, Chennai by furnishing false and fabricated financial statements, the CBI alleged.

It is alleged that the funds were siphoned away causing wrongful loss of Rs 142.94 crore to the bank, the spokesperson said.
Similar modus operandi was also used by the accused to avail various credit facilities from the State Bank of India by furnishing inflated income and assets in the financial statements by creating unsubstantiated entries in the books of accounts since 1998, the CBI alleged.

The spokesperson said the funds were diverted for personal purposes causing wrongful loss of Rs 248.46 crore to the bank.
"Investigation conducted by CBI has disclosed that the accused along with seven shell companies in... conspiracy with statutory and internal auditors had cheated the banks by submitting forged financial statements to obtain undue credit limits and siphoned off the same... causing wrongful loss of Rs 665 crores(approx) to the banks," the spokesperson said.
He said investigation has also disclosed that the promoter-directors had misappropriated the assets of the company entrusted to them by using such loaned money to donate annually to a trust run by Muthiah.

Muthiah was the chairman of Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) from 1999 to 2001.