Thursday

List of Scams in India


I was not surprised when at the Regional Passport office I had to grease the palm of a tout to expedite issue of a new pamphlet. When asked, the tout tersely asked: Sir, are you from the Mars? This is India. The Mother of corruption rules the country. The riddle was complicated. To my pleasant surprise he rattled out that Janpath to Rajpath, Ballimaran to Bhindi bazaar everyone is required to be pleased with graft money. How can you get the black money back from abroad? The Mother of corruption has stashed away billions herself.

It was a great moment of education. I retreated as a wiser person.

Prominent Scams Before 2005

Harshad Mehta Big Bull Scam – 4000 crore
Lalu’s Chara Ghotala – 950 crores – July 2008 IAS officer Sajjal gets four-yr RI for 39 crore scam
Hawala Scandal – 5000 crores
Bofors Scandal – 64 crores (Also Read: 1 2 3)
Narendra Rastogi serial scammer – more than 43 crores (Read more 1)
Dalmia Scandal – 595 crores
Civil Aviation Minister Praful Patel fraud case-50 crores
UTI Scam – 32 crores
Mutual Fund Scam – 1350 crores
Bansali Scam – 1200 crores
Ketan Parekh’s Sebi Scam- 888 crores – June 08 – SC issues arrest warrant against Ketan Parekh
Cobbler Scam – 1000 crores
Bribe to allot petrol pumps scam-1000 crores
Churhat lottery scam – 5000 crores
Anantnag transport subsidy scam – 80 crores
Bangalore – Mysore Infrastructure Corridor – 200 crores
Kerala SNC Lavalin power scandal – 374.5 crore loss – Dec 09 – Accused CPM leader Vijayan gets bail in graft case.
Telgi Scam – 171 crores – Telgi was sentenced 13 yrs RI and 100 cr fine.
Mayawati’s Taj Corridor- 175 crores alleged scam – Case was dropped in 2007 by the special designated court due to insufficient evidence. 2 May 2008 -Mayawati attempts to stop CBI investigation.
Motilal Goel Scam – 1000 crore
West Bengal Telecom Scam – 400 crores
India’s unchecked textbooks racket – estimated 225 crores
Urea Scam – 133 crores
Meghalaya lottery scam – 25000 crore
Ration Card Scam – 3 crore
Car Financing Scam – 500 crore
Flood Relief Scam – 13 crores
Temple Lands Scam – 30 crores
Franking Scam – 30 crores
Volkswagon Equity Scam – 11 crores – Sep 10 – CBI names 6 accused
National Slum Development Programme – 1.52 crores (Same guy of Flood Relief Scam May 05 who said “Victims can eat plastic bags”)
Kerala State Electricity Board – 89.32 crores (alleged corruption worth Rs. 100 crores was also involved in the drinking water project)
Indian Oil Corporation Scam – 3000 crores. Mere reports of likely investigation of the scam shaved off 89000 crores from the market capital
CBI nets 70 officials in all-India anti-corruption drive
Nagmani Scam – 1.5crore
Stamp Scam (Goa) – 30.19 crore
Okhla Industrial Development Authority (Noida) land scam – 2050 crore
Employment Guarantee Scheme (EGS) Scam- 9.1 crore
Local Area Development Scheme (MPLADS) Scam – 2000 crores
National Agricultural Cooperative Marketing Federation of India (NAFED) Scam – 250 crores – Sep 2007 – HC pulls up CBI for not registering case

“I am pained to observe that the law in this country punishes very harshly the small offenders involved in offences of stealing of small amounts to the tune of few hundred or few thousands. ”Such accused are often sent to jail by the big fishes who defraud the exchequer of crores of rupees…they are dealt with by investigating agencies in a different manner and the law does not act with the same harshness to these offenders,” Justice Dhingra observed in a recent order. ”This attitude of the investigating agencies is beyond comprehension,” he said while directing the CBI to register a case against Pankaj Aggarwal, the alleged mastermind in the scam. Aggarwal has his business in Dubai.

Election Fund Scam – 5000 Crores
Operation Blackboard scam – 1000 crores
Oil for Food Scam – 400 crores


Some 2006 scams

Rice Scam – 320 crores
Benami Demat Scam – 30 crores (Sanjay Pandey the same guy in cobbler scam pre 2005)
February 2006
Benami IPO Scam – 32 crores
Liquor Scam – 3600 crores
The controversial Scorpion Deal – 980 crores
MTNL GSM Scam – 450 crore
Chautala Scam – 1400 crores
BPL Red Cards Scam – 1400 crores
The Great Wheat Scam – 4000 crores
UTI Franchisee forgery – 1000 crores
Punjab State Council of Education Research and Training (SCERT) Scam – more than 3 crores
BPO Scam – more than 3 crore
Bellary iron ore mine bribe – 150 crore
Duty Exemption Pass Book (DEPB) scheme Scam – 10 crore
Unaccounted money on sale of petrol pumps – 18 crores
Punjab Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh goes on a multi-crore holiday extravaganza – 2.5 crores
Top Punjab cops booked for wireless sets scam – 5 crores
Koda Scandal – 2500 crores – Nov 09 – First arrest made Feb 10 – 1 crore seized , Ujjawal Chaudhary, senior Income Tax (I-T) officer who was going to reveal connections with politicians and hawala traders abruptly shifted.
Punjab Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh in real estate fraud – more than 2100 crores.
Earlier, all of them had got anticipatory bail from the Punjab and Haryana High Court. Later they moved regular bail applications. A senior counsel of the Supreme Court appearing on behalf of Captain Amarinder Singh had stressed before the court that his client be granted regular bail till the conclusion of the trial.
“We are discussing legal recourse to be taken in the Apex Court. We may even file public interest litigation before the Supreme Court asking for intervention in the case. It is a mockery of the law we are witnessing in the case. Scores of witnesses are going back on their words. We may even demand the CBI inquiry into the change of stance by the witnesses,” – Report of Jan 2008
West Bengal State Consumer’s Federation Ltd (CONFED) Paddy Scam – 500 crore
SEZ Controversies – RBI fears of a revenue loss — some Rs. 170,000 crore over the next five years by way of income tax, excise and customs duties foregone (based on a NIPF study).
Dharmesh Doshi, Madhavpura Cooperative Bank scam – 1030 crores
Barak Missile Deal – 400 crore – The CBI case alleges that Rs 2 crore were paid to the president of a political party (Jaya Jaitley), who functioned from the residence of the then Defence Minister (George Fernandez). March 2008 Nandas claim innocence
Blood Test Kit Scam – 50 crores
Bangalore Development Authority and Bangalore Mahanagara Palika on illegal constructions – 180 crore
NSDL and CDSL bags illegitimate profits in an IPO manipulation scam – 116 crore
SMS Con – 40-100 crore
Agrofed job scam – 60 crore
Haj Quota scam- bribes taken to illegally procure seats from the Government’s subsidised Haj quota for 1 lakh muslims- 98 crores

Some 2007 scams

Illegal Telephone Exchanges Scam – 1000 crores
Non-Banking Financial Companies (NBFC) Scam – swindled 12,000 crores of small investors before leaving the state
Karnataka State Government to award a meager cash prize (Rs. 2,000) to Jayant Tinaikar, who reportedly exposed the fake stamp paper scam 12 years ago.
Uranium Corporation of India Limited Scam – 20 crores
Oriental Bank Scam – 596.44 crores
Mandankumar Scam – 3.5 crores
Pune Hassan Ali Khan Scam – 50 crores – I-T department, ED, and IB estimates that several thousand crore rupees were routed out of India(possibly Swiss banks) through havala and banking channels. The rea; estimate of Hassan Ali’s scams are yet to be gauged. He was protected by Cong/NCP stalwarts.
Congress MP Moni Kumar Subba from Tezpur, lied about his Indian nationality for 16 years manages to scam the country off by 25000 crores
There is little chance of recovery in most of these cases as there are not many assets to recover the arrears, officials claimed.
Air Ticket Booking Scam – 13 crores
The Royapettah Benefit Fund (RBF) in Chennai went bust drowning Rs 450 crore and leaving investors and depositors in the lurch a company allowed to operate by RBI.
Fertilizers Subsidies Scam – 300 crores
Arunachal Pradesh’s corrupt governance: 1000 crores .Misappropriation under former CM Gegong Apang and present incumbent Dorjee Khandu) Aug 10 – Apang arrested
There were a number of cases regarding mismanagement in the Public Distribution System. People in the villages were not getting enough food allotted by the Centre. Cooperative rural banking scams affected small depositors like laborers and teachers. The hydro power sector was also in doldrums.
Sampoorn Gramin Rojgar Yogana Scam – 457 crores . Dec 07 – Scam referred to CBI.
A muti-crore scam under which the poor were deprived of food grains under the state scheme. A systematic loot was taking place in the state and the government was not willing to give permission for holding a CBI probe into the scam running into crores of rupees.
Warehouse Receipts Scandal – 500 crores
Stock Holding Corporation of India Limited (SHCIL) Scam – 2580 crores.
Hyderabad Metropolitan Water Supply and Sewerage Board (HMWS&SB) Scam – 50 crores
Punjab Public Service Commission (PPSC) recruitment scam – 8 crores
Three judges of the High Court were found taking favors from Ravi Sidhu, former PPSC chairman. On April 19, 2004, 25 sitting judges of the High Court had gone on mass leave protesting Chief Justice B K Roy’s move to seek an explanation from two judges, Justice Vinay Mittal and Varinder Singh, who had allegedly applied for membership of a private golf course, Forest Hill Resort Club. The club was involved in litigation and was later demolished on the orders of the High Court. The club was illegally constructed in complete violation of Forest and Environment laws. Honorary memberships were given to IAS officers and the two judges to legitimize the illegalities.
Delhi Development Authority canteen owner Ashok Malhotra owned more than 50 cars and 10 motorcycles were recovered, all bearing special VIP number plates. Raid unearthed 5000 land documents, and other assets worth 7000 crores
Former Supreme Court Chief Justice YK Sabharwal was involved in dubious judicial deal-making that earned his sons huge profits. – estimated 58 crores
Kerala State Cooperative Bank Scam – 2000 crores
Aircraft Import Scam – 1059 crores
Leave Travel Concession (LTC) Scam – loss of Rs 200 crore to Government and PSUs.
Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) Land Scam – 900 crores
‘ISRO comes directly under the prime minister and it is they who have to launch an inquiry and not us. If they are ready for it, then the state government will provide all necessary help,’ – Kerala Chief Minister V.S. Achuthanandan
Filing of petition challenging the actions of the banks in waiving of around Rs 2,300 crore of public money arbitrarily without any valid reason, describing this as the largest single waiver in the history of Indian banking industry.
Fake- housing projects in north India – 500 crores – Y S Rana from Delhi. Rana was the owner of PS&G Developers and Engineers Ltd arrested by EOW.
Kidney Transplant Racket – 150 crores more than a 1000 victims.
Many innocent laborers lost their kidney in lure of money and job. The racket is believed to be spread in various states, including Jammu and Kashmir, Rajasthan, Haryana, Delhi and Maharashtra.
Coal India Ltd illegally diverted at least Rs10 crore from the funds it had collected for over a decade and meant for the Prime Minister’s National Relief Fund (PMNRF).
Part of the funds collected at the time of the Kargil war for the NDF has been transmitted as late as 27 August 2007, after the initiation of this inquiry.” The Kargil war happened in 1999.
Funds collected for victims of the Kargil war, Orissa cyclone and Gujarat earthquake were misused by top IAS officers in Punjab – the documents prove that officers posted as deputy commissioners in Ludhiana, Patiala and Sangrur misappropriated and misused crores of money while heading the Red Cross societies in their districts.
Lucknow Development Authority (LDA) Land Scam – 6 crores

Some 2008 scams

Punjab Vigilance Branch arrests whistle-blower
Punjab vigilance bureau is penny wise and pound foolish. A sub-divisional officer (SDO) who blew the whistle on a scam worth crores was arrested by the bureau in an alleged graft case. While the SDO has been suspended, his own report on the utilization of border area funds — exposing what is probably the tip of the iceberg — is gathering dust.
Kolkata Museum Scam – 18 crores
One of the biggest repositories of the country’s cultural and historical heritage has been siphoning off crores of rupees under the pretext of preserving priceless artifacts, a probe has found.
Senior Punjab IAS officer suspended for going out of his way to help a company by hiring it without inviting tenders and extending advances without proper bank guarantees. The company failed to repay, causing loss of Rs 20 crore to the corporation.
KPMG – India is “fraud haven”
BCCI Dalmiya Scam – 60 crores
Illegal export of sandalwood – 5 crores
Madhya Pradesh Health Minister Ajay Vishnoi quits after Income Tax raid on brother’s premises – 500 crore
Ghaziabad Provident Fund scam – 23 crores – involved 83 accused included 36 judges, including one sitting Supreme Court judge, 11 High Court judges and 24 judges of subordinate judiciary. Beneficiaries of the ill-gotten money which was siphoned off fraudulently on the basis of fake documents and fictitious government servants and withdrawal of crores of rupees from the provident fund account of third and fourth-grade employees in Ghaziabad region between 2001 and 2008.(Read more 1) Chief Justice of India KG Balakrishnan denied heading the bench hearing (Read more 1) Dec 08 – CBI says it would seek permission to interrogate the judges. Oct – 09 – Key accused dies of heart attack while in custody Jul 10 No evidence against 17 out 41 judges and 24 remaining judges

Ghaziabad police sought permission from the Chief Justice of India and Allahabad Court to initiate a probe against the judges accused in this scam. While the Allahabad High Court dismissed the petition summarily, at the Supreme Court, Chief Justice K. Balakrishnan handled the request with remarkable astuteness and ordered a novel method of investigation that would protect the prestige and the reputation of the judiciary as far as possible.
Fake Currency Scam in Uttar Pradesh Bank – 1.5 crores
Fake RBI Cheques Scam – 14 crores
Shirdi Ghat Repair – 40 crores
Mid Day Meal Scam – 15.37 crores
2G Spectrum Scam – 1, 76,000 crores Dec 08 – Center claimed that charges are baseless
Satyam Computer’s Emergency Management Research Institute (EMRI) Ambulance Services Scam – 5600 crores
E-ticketing fraud – 5 crores

Some 2009 scams

11 Directors of National Agricultural Marketing Federation of India (Nafed) face criminal action in an Rs3, 700 crore fraud.
Satyam Fraud – 7 to 14000 crores – Price Waterhouse Coopers saw no fraud in Satyam – Nov 09 CBI arrested Satyam’s internal audit head V S Prabhakar Gupta for allegedly fabricating account books, just days before it is due to file a second charge sheet in the multi-crore fraud at the IT firm. Jul 10 – Promoters wrongfully gained 2643 crores (Read more 1 2 3 4 5 6 7)
Reports said that investors like DSP Merrill Lynch, DSP Blackrock, ILFS Financial Services and Deutsche Bank offloaded their shares days before Satyam fraud came out in open.
Computer Purchasing Fraud – 1.53 crores
Divine Homeopath Investment Manager – 1600 crore
Ordnance Factory Board (OFB) arms deal scam – 500 crores – Jul 10 – 6 firms get blacklisted
Dr A S Bindra father of ace shooter Abhinav Bindra and managing director of Punjab Meats Limited, Dera Bassion had charges of cheating, fraud and forgery. He committed fraud with a Delhi-based private financial company, Apple India, to the tune of Rs 4.31 crore and with the IndusInd Bank to the tune of Rs 5 crore.
Ashok Jadeja Divine Ayurved and Money Multiplier – 100 to 1600 crores
MCD 45000 Fake Employees Scam – 500-1000 crores annually
Bitumen Scam – more than 100 crores
Chhattisgarh Paddy Scam – 4000 crores
All India Council of Technical Education bribery scam – ? crores – Chairman R.A. Yadav, who drew a monthly salary of about Rs 80,000, had amassed property worth crores.
Metal Scrap Scam – 100 crores
SBI Kanpur – 52 crores – Assistant General Manager, 2 Chief Managers and some senior managers, who were suspected to be directly involved in pilfering the bank by crediting fake cheques into select accounts.
Austra Coke – 1000 crores
Bollywood star Nasir Khan figured in multi crore rupee chit fund scam – 191 crore
Gold Quest Scam – 1100 crore
Dr Suresh Dhotre medicine fraud – 47 crores

Some 2010 scams

IAS officer Pradeep Sharma Bheed Bazaar Land allotment scam – 70 crores
Railways and LIC Scam – 400 crores
Bhopal Home Loan Scam – 2 crores
MP IAS couple scam 7000 crores.
Wipro Embezzlement Fraud – 180 crores
Chak De India Scam – 60 crores
PAN Card Scam – 3 crores
Kandla Port Trust (KPT) Scam – 100 crores – 16000 acres of land was leased out to few parties at nominal rates.
Fake Income Tax Returns Scam – 6 crores
President of the Medical Council of India (MCI), Dr Ketan Desai in college scam – 500 crores – Demanded Rs 40 lakh from students seeking admission in a capitation fee racket and money for allotting seat as a management quota student.
Financial Fraud hits 87% of Indian companies
Canara Bank defrauded – 9.14 crore
Railway Recruitment Board Paper Leak – 15.5 crore
Lalit Modi Indian Premier League (IPL) Scam – 1200 crores
Commonwealth Games Scam – 8000 crores
Senior citizen savings scheme (SCSS) Post Office Scam – 2 crores
International Film Festival of India (IFFI) Infrastructure creation Scam in Goa – 80 crores
Adarsh Society Scam – 1000 crores
State-owned Mineral Scrap Trading Corporation (MSTC) was defrauded by jewelry traders – 1400 crores
Citibank swindle – 300 crores.

These are few landmark scams.

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