How did ICICI employee use elderly woman’s account to ‘pool’ & steal ₹4.58 crore from FDs?
In a shocking case of fraud, an ICICI employee has been suspended for allegedly stealing ₹4.58 crore from fixed deposit (FD) accounts and using the money to invest in stocks. The employee, Sakshi Gupta, linked her family members’ phone numbers to customer accounts and devised a system to obtain one-time passwords (OTPs) on her system.
According to a report by NDTV, Gupta used an elderly woman’s account as a “pool account” to transfer funds from other customers’ accounts. She also illegally activated overdraft facilities on 40 accounts to siphon off more funds.
The fraud came to light after the ICICI Bank’s internal audit team detected some unusual transactions in the elderly woman’s account. The bank launched an investigation and found that Gupta was behind the fraud.
Gupta’s modus operandi was to link her family members’ phone numbers to the customer accounts. This allowed her to receive OTPs sent by the bank to those numbers, enabling her to access the accounts without needing to know the customers’ passwords. She would then transfer funds from these accounts to the elderly woman’s account, which was used as the “pool account”.
The elderly woman, who has not been named, was allegedly unaware of the transactions and only discovered the fraud when she received a notice from the bank saying that her account had exceeded its credit limit.
Gupta’s scheme was not limited to just one account. She also activated overdraft facilities on 40 other accounts, allowing her to siphon off more funds. The ICICI Bank has said that it will take all necessary legal action against Gupta and will also compensate the affected customers.
This is not the first time that an ICICI Bank employee has been accused of fraud. In 2016, a bank employee was arrested for allegedly stealing ₹1.4 crore from customers’ accounts.
The ICICI Bank has a reputation for being one of the most trusted and secure banks in the country. However, this incident highlights the need for banks to have robust internal controls and monitoring systems in place to prevent fraud.
The ICICI Bank has promised to take all necessary steps to prevent such incidents in the future. The bank has also said that it will review its policies and procedures to ensure that they are robust and secure.
The investigation into Gupta’s activities is ongoing, and the ICICI Bank has promised to cooperate fully with the authorities. Gupta has been suspended from her job pending the outcome of the investigation.
This incident is a wake-up call for banks and customers alike. It highlights the need for customers to be vigilant and to regularly check their account statements to detect any unusual transactions. It also underscores the importance of banks having robust internal controls and monitoring systems in place to prevent fraud.
In conclusion, the case of Sakshi Gupta, the ICICI employee who stole ₹4.58 crore from fixed deposit accounts and used the money to invest in stocks, is a shocking and disturbing incident. It highlights the need for banks to have robust internal controls and monitoring systems in place to prevent fraud, and for customers to be vigilant and to regularly check their account statements to detect any unusual transactions.
