Major Financial Scams in India Between 2010-2022 (Part-3)

Financial Scams in India Between 2010-2022

1. Commonwealth Games Scam 2010

When India hosted the Commonwealth Games in 2010, approximately 70,000 crores were stolen from the country’s coffers. It is estimated that only half of the money set aside for Indian athletes was spent.

The organizing committee of the 2010 Commonwealth Games in India awarded Swiss timings a contract worth 141 crores for timing equipment. Surprisingly, this amount was overstated by Rs. 95 crores. Misappropriation of funds, payments to non-existent parties, and willful delays in contract execution were also issues.

2. Coalgate Scam 2012

The coal allocation scam, also known as ‘Coalgate,’ is a political scandal that broke out in 2012. The scam was discovered when the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) accused the government of illegally allocating 194 coal blocks between 2004 and 2009. As many bureaucrats and politicians were involved, this was one of the scams that shook the entire nation to its core. The initial loss estimate was more than Rs 10 lakh crore; however, the final report stated that the scam amount was Rs 1.86 lakh crore.

3. Reliance Jio Spectrum-Auction-Rigging Scam 2015

The Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG) indicted the Department of Telecommunications in May 2015 for providing an “undue benefit” to Reliance Jio. The CAG estimated the undue benefit at Rs 22,842 crore in a rough draft released in August 2014.

4. Lalit Modi’s Corruption Case 2015

Former IPL chairman Lalit Modi was discovered using credit cards issued by foreign banks that were not in his name. Five of these cards were given to his brother-in-law Suresh Chellaram’s family and two to his stepdaughter Karima.

5. Vijay Mallya Scam 2016

Vijay Mallya obtained large loans from several banks but failed to repay them. Many banks declared him bankrupt and refused to make him any new loans. Another unethical practice that his airlines engaged in was failing to pay PF, salaries, and taxes to the government. He failed to pay his employees’ salaries and closed his business due to his consistent losses.

6. NSE Co-Location Scam 2016

Chitra Ramkrishna was fined 5 crores by SEBI on June 29, 2022, for her role in ignoring the unauthorized installation of black fiber connections to the exchange’s co-location trading engines. Sanjay Gupta, MD of OPG Securities, was arrested in the NSE Co-location case.

7. PNB Scam 2018

When one of the corrupt officials retired, a new official requested collateral from Nirav Modi and his companies in order to grant LoUs. Foreign banks that had made loans based on PNB’s LoUs came knocking at PNB’s door. Because corrupt officials did not keep relevant records, no records of such transactions were discovered.

On February 14, 2018, the Punjab National Bank, India’s second-largest public sector bank, helplessly reported fraudulent transactions totaling 1.8 billion dollars to stock exchanges, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), and the general public.