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A 38-year-old Indian national has been sentenced to 90 months in federal prison for his role in an "imposter scam" that defrauded 11 victims, including elderly people in five US states, according to an official statement. Ligneshkumar H. Patel pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and financial institution fraud and two counts of wire fraud. The judge ordered him to pay more than USD 2 million in restitution, the Department of Justice said in a statement on Wednesday. "Imposter scams are international conspiracies often using US-based money mules to meet victims in person to take their money, said US Attorney Steven D. Weinhoeft. The US Attorney's Office prosecutes these fraudsters aggressively, and anyone who targets elderly victims will face certain justice." According to court documents, Patel drove to the residences of at least 11 elderly victims in five states to steal their assets totalling USD 2,231,216.99. Patel worked within a major conspiracy that
A Delhi court on Monday deferred pronouncement of its order to December 4 on framing of charges in the alleged land-for-job case involving RJD chief and former Railway Minister Lalu Prasad Yadav, his family members, and several others. Special CBI Judge Vishal Gogne was hearing the case filed by the agency against Lalu Yadav and others over their alleged involvement in the case. The matter will now be taken up on December 4, when the court is expected to pronounce its decision on whether there is sufficient evidence to frame charges. The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has filed chargesheets against Lalu Yadav, his wife and former Bihar chief minister Rabri Devi, their son Tejashwi Yadav and others in connection with the alleged scam. The prosecution has alleged appointments in Group-D category of West Central Zone of the Railways based in Jabalpur, Madhya Pradesh, made during Lalu Yadav's tenure as railway minister from 2004 to 2009, in return for land parcels gifted or ...
India on Thursday repatriated 270 of its nationals from Thailand in two military transport aircraft, days after they fled to Thai border town of Mae Sot from a notorious scam centre in Myanmar following a crackdown on it. Around 500 Indian nationals were among 1,500 people from 28 countries who crossed over to Thailand late last month following the raid on the cybercrime hub of KK Park in Myanmarese city of Myawaddy. The Indian embassy in Bangkok said the Thai government has facilitated repatriation of 270 Indian nationals, including 26 women, from Mae Sot to India by two special flights operated by the Indian Air Force. These Indian nationals recently crossed into Thailand from Myawaddy where they were allegedly working in the cyber scam-centres, it said on social media. The Indians were detained by Thai authorities for violation of the country's immigration laws when they had entered it illegally, the Indian mission said. India is expected to operate more flights on Friday to br
The Calcutta High Court on Friday granted bail to former West Bengal minister Partha Chatterjee in connection with the teacher recruitment irregularities case under investigation of the CBI. Chatterjee, the prime accused in the cash-for-jobs scam in Bengal's state-run schools, which perceptively runs into several thousand crores and has rocked state politics for the past several years, was granted bail in a case on irregularities in primary school recruitment, the charge sheet on which was filed by the CBI on December 27 last year. The former minister has been behind bars for over three years now, and has already been granted bail in the other cases slapped on him by the central investigating agencies the ED and CBI. The latest bail order makes him eligible to walk out of jail once the formalities of furnishing bail bonds are over. Lawyers, however, expressed doubts on whether the former minister would be set free ahead of the Durga Puja festival, and opined that in the wake of a .
A special court here has sent former IAS officers Alok Shukla and Anil Tuteja in the Enforcement Directorate's custody for four weeks in a money laundering case linked to the alleged Nagrik Apurti Nigam (NAN) scam. The duo surrendered before the court of Special Judge (Prevention of Money Laundering Act) Damarudhar Chouhan, following which they were formally arrested by the ED on Monday and produced before the court. "The special court has granted their custodial remand to the ED for four weeks. The two will be taken to Delhi for interrogation," ED's lawyer Saurabh Kumar Pande told PTI. Last week, the Supreme Court set aside the anticipatory bail granted to Shukla (65) and Tuteja (62). It allowed ED to take their custody for a period of four weeks, after which both were to be released "if not required in any other case, subject to the terms and conditions that may be imposed by the trial court". The apex court had granted the duo one week to surrender. As per the custodial remand
Arrested TMC MLA Jiban Krishna Saha, along with his associates, acted as an agent for collecting huge sums of money from "undeserving" candidates in exchange for jobs for the post of assistant teachers in West Bengal, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) alleged on Tuesday. The legislator from the Burwan constituency in Murshidabad district was taken into custody by the federal probe agency on Monday after searches were conducted at his residence. The raids also covered the premises of his associates and an alleged middleman named Prasanna Kumar Roy. A special Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) court sent him to ED custody for 6 days on Monday. The probe pertains to alleged illegal appointments of Assistant Teachers (Classes IX-XII) in the schools of the West Bengal government, and this is alleged to have been done in criminal conspiracy with officials of the West Bengal Central School Service Commission (SSC). The Supreme Court, in April this year, cancelled the appointments of
A chargesheet filed by the Andhra Pradesh police in connection with the alleged Rs 3,500-crore liquor scam in a local court alleges that the kickbacks were systematically laundered through low-profile individuals, such as office boys or employees. The Special Investigation Team (SIT) probing the alleged liquor scam filed a supplementary chargesheet on Monday. "During the course of investigation, it was revealed that the accused have systematically laundered the kickback amount with the help of low-profile individuals who were working as office boys or employees in the companies owned by the accused," officials said quoting the chargesheet. "Such employees and individuals acted as couriers and mules for depositing illicit cash into a network of bank accounts linked to the syndicate," they added. This pattern of cash layering and circulation demonstrates a deliberate attempt to conceal the origin of crime proceeds, constituting a classic case of structured money laundering and ...
The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has filed a chargesheet before a special PMLA court in Ahmedabad against the operators of a online betting and football app launched by a Chinese national, which allegedly cheated a number of persons, officials said on Friday. The prosecution complaint was filed on Thursday in the case against 'Dani Data App', the central investigative agency said in a statement. The operators of the app, apart from nine others, have been named as accused in the chargesheet filed under the provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), the statement said. "The app launched by a Chinese national collected funds in the name of betting and playing football games on apps downloaded from Google Play Store and through WhatsApp referral groups. "The gullible investors were lured by promising guaranteed return of 0.75 per cent per game, which was a false promise," the ED said. The funds were collected, it said, through a number of merchant IDs opened with ...
The Supreme Court on Tuesday cancelled bail granted to former DHFL promoter Dheeraj Wadhawan in the multi-crore bank loan scam case. A bench of Justices Sanjay Kumar and Satish Chandra Sharma passed the order after perusing the report filed by a medical board and directed Wadhawan to surrender within two weeks. The Delhi High Court on September 9, 2024 granted him bail on medical grounds saying Wadhawan fell within the parameters of a "sick person". The order came on an appeal filed by the CBI appeal against the high court order. Additional Solicitor General S V Raju, representing the agency, had earlier said said Wadhawan suffered from no serious medical ailments and huge amounts of money were siphoned off in the case. The Wadhawan brothers -- Kapil and Dheeraj-- were arrested in this case in July 2022. The agency filed a chargesheet in October 2022 following which a court took its cognisance. The FIR was registered on a complaint made by the Union Bank of India, which alleged