Department of Financial Services, Government of India and the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) are closely probing the alleged violation of anti-money laundering laws by the staffs of some private banks including Axis Bank.
This information was given by Union Finance Minister P Chidambaram recently. The probe is in response to a sting operation conducted by the portal Cobrapost. The port played the contents of a purported video recording of officials of private banks including Axis Bank, allegedly agreeing to receive unverified sums of cash and put them in their investment schemes and benami accounts in violation of anti-money laundering laws.
Other private sector banks named in the sting operation are ICICI Bank and HDFC Bank. These banks took action by suspending staff concerned pending investigation.
The sting operation found that a number of senior executives of the three banks verbally agreed to take huge amounts of cash from the undercover reporter and putting them into a variety of long-term investment plans so that the black money ultimately is converted into white.
However, neither any account was opened nor any cash was deposited in these banks. As part of corrective action, HDFC Bank has hired independent audit firm for conducting forensic enquiry while Axis Bank initiated a probe into the matter.
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