 "Ponzi scams, cyber crimes & economic offences to see increased focus from CBI")
In what can be termed as a makeover exercise, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) is looking to increase its focus on cracking corruption in public life along with dealing with economic offences and cyber crimes. It is also looking to aggressively solve banking and corporate frauds, ponzi scams, and serious frauds.
“The agency has taken a slew of steps to upgrade and strengthen technology, recruit more officials and provide training to personnel. Apart from this, officials are trained at IIM Bangalore and National Law College there. Training is also accorded to CBI's public prosecutors to effectively argue cases pertaining to economic offences,” said Devpreet Singh, spokesperson for the CBI.
Currently, it is investigating ponzi scams amounting to a staggering Rs 1,20,000 crore apart from as many as 20,000 bank frauds across the country.
In 2015, the central agency was successfully able to investigate 20 major cyber crimes.
The CBI has already approached nine states, including Maharashtra, to open up state-of-the-art cyber crime investigation units following an alarming rise in such cases. The state has been requested to notify the CBI for taking up the investigation of offences under the Information Technology Act 2000.
Ponzi Focus
On January 8 this year, the agency arrested Pearls Group head Nirmal Singh Bhangoo and three others in connection with an alleged Rs 45,000 crore ($6.7 billion) ponzi scam.
Besides, it last month filed a supplementary charge sheet in Saradha scam.
A senior officer, who was in Mumbai with the CBI director Anil Sinha to inaugurate agency's Mumbai office, told Business Standard, “The Ponzi scam cases are unearthed across the country. In Jharkhand alone there are 180 such cases. A Ponzi scheme is a fraudulent investment operation where operators usually entice new investors by offering higher returns than other investments. CBI is working actively to crack such scams in a time bound manner.”
Bank Frauds
As far as burgeoning banking frauds, the officer said that the agency has so far held six meetings with representatives of banks and financial institutions to seek their views on how to effectively curb it. The seventh meeting is organised today in Mumbai.
He admitted that until recently all the financial frauds, remittances scams, forex violations and money laundering cases — linked with the public and private banks — were probed by the Enforcement Directorate (ED). “However, CBI and ED will together step up probe into such cases,” he noted.
As per the CBI's revised strategy, the agency will be able to register a criminal case against the involved banks, bank officials and related entities under various IPC Sections - including bribery and cheating.
The official referred to the Bank of Baroda scam in which About Rs 6,172 crore in funds were allegedly laundered through its branch in New Delhi using provisions such as pre-payment for imports.
Cyber crimes
In case of cracking cyber crimes, the official said its detection and investigations are crucial to both the government and private sector due to its implications for security and economy. The government and the law enforcement agencies on one side and the private sector led by IT companies on the other are working together to fight this threat.
