|
|
|
Big
Corruption Scandals of India
. India is the 87th in Transparency International's rankings based on perceived
levels of corruption. This year 2010 India has been rocked by a series of
big corruption scandals that have embarrassed the ruling Congress party, rattled markets and delayed reform bills as the opposition stalls
parliament till December 11, 2010.
2G Telecoms licence Scam
The 2G scam becomes more aggressive when in its report, the
Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG) said rules were flouted when the licences were given in 2007-08 which led to many
ineligible firms getting them. Telecoms Minister Andimuthu Raja was sacked after a report by India's state auditor said his ministry sold licences
and spectrum below market prices, depriving the government of up to USD 39 billion in revenues.
The scandal swept up as high as Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, who had to explain to the Supreme Court why he sat on a request for permission to charge Raja with
corruption. The CBI has launched an investigation into alleged corruption at the ministry.
Nobody has been charged yet and Raja has denied any wrongdoing.
The CAG said Unitech units got licences despite having inadequate capital, Swan Telecom got a licence even though there were monopoly issues
and Reliance Communications got undue benefits as it sought permission to offer services under the more popular GSM technology.
Former Telecoms Minister Andimuthu Raja was sacked from minister
post and after courts direction sent to Tihar jail.
Revenue authorities have questioned Nira Radia, a top lobbyist, as part of
an investigation into whether money laundering and forex laws were broken when the licences were purchased.
Nira Radia has denied any wrongdoing and has said she is cooperating with the probe.
Kanimozhi's arrest on May 21, 2011 brings to an end
the rise in the DMK family. The Delhi court hearing the 2G scam
case rejected her bail application and ordered her immediate
arrest. The DMK Rajya Sabha MP and party chief M Karunanidhi's
daughter was then sent to Tihar Jail. Kanimozhi, the DMK MP, now
43, has a Masters in Economics, was a journalist employed with
several publications and also ran a website before she joined active politics.
After A Raja, Kanimozhi, Dayanidhi Maran is the next
victim in the multi-crore 2G scam who resigned on July 7, 2011 .
The DMK minister was under pressure to quit after CBI accused
former Telecom Minister of forcing the promoter of Chennai-based
telecom company Aircel to sell his firm to a Malaysian company in 2006.
Commonwealth Games 2010
Allegations of corruption over the Commonwealth games 2010 event that took place
in Delhi in October 2010 are being investigated
by several bodies including the anti-corruption watchdog, the state auditor, the CBI and a special committee set up by Prime Minister Singh.
The Congress-party led coalition government came under fierce criticism for
mismanagement and ineptitude over the sporting extravaganza which cost up to
Rs. 70,000 crore (USD 6 billion).
Allegations of corruption spanned a broad spectrum including issuing of contracts and purchase of equipment -- from treadmills to toilet rolls.
India's anti-corruption watchdog has identified more than 16 projects with possible irregularities. |
Andimuthu Raja
Nira Radia
Kanimozhi, the DMK MP
The DMK minister
Dayanidhi Maran |
|
|
Asdarsah
Housing scam 2010
Adarsah Housing society scam in Mumbai was one of the biggest scam
in Mumbai in 2010. Congress party politicians, bureaucrats and military officials have been accused of taking over land meant for building apartments for war widows. The CBI has begun investigating the
case when pressure was mounted by opposition parties in Parliament.
Local media say apartments with a value of USD 1.8 million were sold for as little as USD 130,000 each in the apartment block,
which faces the Arabian Sea in one of the world's most expensive stretches of real estate in Mumbai.
The government has sacked the chief minister of western Maharashtra state, Ashok Chavan, who is a member of Congress.
The apartment block is also being investigated for several violations of norms,including environmental laws and land-use rules.
The government has now effectively taken back permissions allowing owners to occupy the apartments, which are required for water and power supplies, leading to the disconnection of these services.
|
 |
|
|
Loan bribery case
2010
The case broke after a year of investigation on November 24 when the Central
Bureau of Investigation (CBI) arrested eight people, accusing them of bribery for corporate loans.
The arrests included the chief executive of state-run mortgage lender LIC Housing Finance and senior officials at state-run Central Bank of India, Punjab
National Bank and Bank of India.
While the size of the scandal is not yet known, local media have reported it could run into hundreds of millions of dollars.
The CBI is probing 21 companies involved in India's booming infrastructure sector for links, but has not named them.
The bribes were allegedly paid by private finance firm Money Matters Financial
Services, which acted as a "mediator and facilitator" for the loan beneficiaries, the CBI said.
Companies whose officials have been arrested have all denied any wrongdoing. Individuals arrested have not yet commented.
Government officials, including ministers, have said this is a case of individual wrongdoing and not a widespread scam. |
|
|
|
Satyam Computers 2009
The founder of Satyam Computer Services, one of India's top software firms, resigned in January 2009 after admitting profits were falsely inflated for years.The fraud, estimated at USD 1 billion, was India's largest corporate scandal and was dubbed "India's Enron".
With clients abandoning it, shares were hammered down to near-penny-stock levels.
The government stepped in to save the firm by appointing a new board of directors and midwifed its sale to Tech Mahindra. The firm is now called Mahindra Satyam.
The founder chairman of Satyam, Ramalinga Raju, and other officials including the then chief executive officer and chief financial officer, were arrested under
several charges including fraud. The cases continue in court. The defendants have said they were not involved in the
fraud.
Securities scam 1992
Several Indian stockbrokers were accused of siphoning off over Rs 3,500 crore
(USD 778 million) of funds, mostly from inter-bank transactions, to fuel a rise in the Mumbai stock market in 1992. It involved top officers of state-run and foreign banks and financial institutions, bureaucrats and politicians.
News of the scam led to an over 40% fall in shares over two months, wiping millions of dollars from market value.
Harshad Mehta, the main accused, died in 2002, convicted in only one of the many cases filed against him, for misappropriation of funds in a case involving the use of money from the bank account of carmaker Maruti Suzuki for trading in stocks.
Several bank executives were convicted for fraud in allowing bank funds to be
used for trading stocks.
|
|
|
|
Bofors gun deal 1996
India's purchase of artillery guns from Swedish firm Bofors in 1986 was rocked
by allegations that Rs 64 crore (USD 14.2 million) -- a huge sum then -- was paid as bribes to people close to then prime minister Rajiv Gandhi to swing the deal.
The scandal caused an uproar in parliament, led to a split in the ruling
Congress party and the defeat of Gandhi in federal elections in 1989.
Its fallout has stymied India's defence expansion, with officials for years
unwilling to take decisions on purchases that could later be probed for corruption.
Amongst the people probed were the London-based Indian business family of the
Hindujas, who were later acquitted by a court of any involvement.The case has dragged on for years without any result.
TELGI SCAM: 1991 Rs 43,000 crore
Counterfeiter Abdul Karim Telgi printed fake stamp paper and appointed
300 agents to sell them in bulk to banks, foreign investors, insurance
companies and stock market players, earning around Rs 200 crore a month.
The swindle exceeded Rs 43,000 crore and covered 12 states. The Telgi
scandal had political implications; a narco test allegedly revealed the
involvement of Maharashtra political leaders like Sharad Pawar and Chhagan Bhujbal. On June 28, 2007, Telgi was awarded 13 years of
rigorous imprisonment and fined Rs 202 crore. Forty-two of Telgi's accomplices were also sentenced to six years rigorous imprisonment.
Fodder Scam: 1996 Rs 950 crore
Over two decades, Bihar ministers and officials colluded to bill the
state treasury over Rs 950 crore to provide feed, medicines and animal
husbandry equipment for "vast herds of fictitious livestock". The swindle allegedly involved chief ministers Jagannath Mishra and Lalu
Prasad Yadav, with the latter being sent to jail.
IPO Scam: 2006 Rs 61 crore
Benami and fake demat accounts were used by financiers and stock market
players led by Roopalben Panchal of IndiaBulls to illegally get reserved
IPO shares worth Rs 61 crore. Small investors became victims when these
shares were sold on the first day of listing itself, making a huge profit from the difference in issue price and listing price.
UTI Scam: 2000 Rs 32 crore
Former United Trust of India (UTI) chairman P.S. Subramanyam and two
executive directors M.M. Kapur and S.K. Basu connived with stockbroker
Rakesh Mehta to buy 40,000 shares of Cyberspace Infosys for around Rs
3.33 crore, when there were no buyers for the scrip. According to the
CBI, "the conspiracy" resulted in a loss of Rs 32 crore. The promoter of
Cyberspace, Arvind Johari, allegedly paid the UTI officials Rs 50 lakh
to promote its shares.
Mutual fund Scam: 2001 Rs 1,350 crore
After the UTI was bailed out by the government with Rs 4,800 crore of
taxpayers' money, it purchased huge bulks of manipulated shares from
'Pentafour bull' Ketan Parekh. The 2001 stock market crash prompted the
sebi to inspect the books of several brokers, including Parekh. The CBI
arrested him on charges of defrauding the Bank of India of about $30
million. Hundreds went bankrupt and eight investors committed suicide, the markets lost Rs 1,15,000 crore to the scam.
Bhansali Scam: 1995 Rs 1,200 crore
Businessman Chain Roop Bhansali invited investments in his financial
outfits CRB Capital Markets, CRB Mutual Fund and CRB Share Custodial
Services between 1992 and 1996, later transferring the money to fictitious companies. CRB Capital Markets raised Rs 176 crore, CRB
Mutual Funds Rs 230 crore and fixed deposits earned him Rs 180 crore. He
also raised around Rs 900 crore from markets. Bhansali would pay the
interest on investments by borrowing from the market, but he went bust in the 1995 stock market crash and was busted in turn.
Madhu Koda Scam: 2009 Rs 4,000 crore
On October 10, 2009, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) charged former
Jharkhand chief minister Madhu Koda with money laundering to the tune of
over Rs 4,000 crore. In 2005, when he became chief minister at 35, his
declared assets totalled Rs 12 lakh. The ED raided his hotels, property
and three companies in Mumbai and Kolkata, and also discovered he owned
assets in Thailand, Indonesia, Singapore and Dubai. He had allegedly
also bought a coal mine in Liberia for Rs 8.5 crore. The one-time labourer has 1,800 bank accounts all over the globe. Investigators said
that most of Koda's assets were held in the name of his main associates:
Vinod Sinha of Chaibasa (Jharkhand) and Sanjay Chaudhary of Jamshedpur.
|
|
|
|
