New Delhi:April 6, 2013 DH News Service

http://www.deccanherald.com/content/324251/cobrapost-releases-fresh-videos-nail.html

Even as allegations of money-laundering against three prominent private banks – ICICI, HDFC, Axis – seemed to have lost their force, news portal Cobrapost on Thursday released fresh videos of its sting operation to drive home the message that the practice is systematic in these banks.

The portal, in its earlier expose on March 14, alleged that money-laundering practices are part of standard set of procedures and these banks are openly offering services to even walk-in-customers. Releasing videos of fresh cases, the news-portal has said, “We release dozens of fresh cases, relating to the same banks, to again establish that these activities are not exceptions as being bandied about by certain quarters but a rule across the breadth and length of our country in these banks.”

Cobrapost made cold calls on dozens of branches of the three banks across the nation and found in its interactions that money laundering was being “virtually” sold as a product. The only thing missing was a brochure. The news portal had done the operation in branches including in Kolkata, Ghaziabad, Hyderabad, South Delhi, Faridabad (Haryana), Chennai and Mumbai.

In the fresh case, the Cobrapost Associate Editor received offers for accepting huge unaccounted cash without asking for the source of money, opening accounts without the mandatory PAN card, not reporting the transaction to any monitoring authority, investing the cash in long-term insurance products, converting the client’s cash into demand drafts through their own bank or through arrangement with other banks, arranging lockers to park several crores of black money in cash, keeping  secret the identity of the politician and  facilitating transfer of black money to overseas accounts, through NRE/NRO accounts, even through conduits other than the banking system allows.

The news portal has alleged a “cover-up” and demanded immediate probe into the matter by agencies, including the RBI, the Enforcement Directorate and the Income Tax Department. Cobrapost has said that internal enquiry system of banks should not be relied upon as banks are beneficiaries of these practices. It also criticised the RBI for giving clean chits to the three banks within a week after the first set of videos of sting operation – named Operation Red Spider – were released.