Online media firm, Cobrapost.com has made money laundering allegations against a wider set of banks and financial institutions, including State Bank of India (SBI) and Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC), and lashed out at the attempts of the government and the regulator to play down its similar expose in March.
Unveiling video footage of staff of over a dozen public sector banks, four private sector ones, besides the three named earlier and four life insurance firms –some banking license aspirants – Cobrapost said operation Red Spider 2 establishes that money laundering is not confined to private banks and is not an aberration, as being made out to be.
Cobrapost claimed that the undercover operation by its firm’s associate editor, Syed Masroor Hasan, clearly establishes money laundering services were being offered as a standard product across banks; even a walk-in customer could avail of these two launder unaccounted cash Under Money Laundering Cloud.
Cobrapost said that five banks were caught selling these services in their branches at Parliament Street.
The sting operations were carried out over six months across Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Delhi, Haryana, Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka.
Lashing out at Reserve Bank of India (RBI), finance ministry and the banks named in first expose, Cobrapost said that they handed out clean chits to themselves on the premise there were only violations of KYC norms and ‘no money laundering as no transaction took place’. This is absurd. The officials caught on tape have demonstrably said they would engage in money laundering for its reporter. According to their own statements, they have done this plenty of times in the past and are eager to do it again. This amounts to clear offences under IPC, as well as PMLA (Prevention of Money Laundering Act).
Cobrapost also alleged that these transactions were not confined to a few low-level front office staff as was being made out to be in the ‘so-called inquiries’.
Cobrapost also said that its interactions with all officials, some of the ranks of divisional managers, territory managers, assistant general managers and vice presidents with scores of branches under their charge, bear it out they are party to and facilitators of these transactions.
Even as all banks and insurance firms denied allegations, the finance ministry, in a communication to state-run lenders, said all employees alleged to be involved in violating norms should be suspended.
