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Time of India
4 hours ago
- Business
- Time of India
Rs 4.58 crore siphoned off from customer accounts, FDs! How former ICICI Bank relationship manager pulled off a stunning fraud - explained in 10 points
Sakshi Gupta had gained unauthorised access to more than 110 accounts of 41 customers and executed multiple illegal transactions. Rs 4.58 crore siphoned off - over 100 accounts of customers accessed - fixed deposits broken: This is not some movie plot - it's a stunning fraud that a former ICICI Bank relationship manager pulled off! The multi-crore fraud continued for over two years. The accused, Sakshi Gupta, who served at ICICI Bank 's Shriram Nagar branch in Kota's DCM area from 2020 to 2023, was taken into custody by Udhyog Nagar police on May 31, 2025 after a thorough investigation. According to a TOI report, police records indicate that the fraudulent activities were initially discovered on February 18. Following ICICI Bank's internal probe that identified Sakshi Gupta, who previously worked as a relationship manager at the bank's DCM branch in Kota, as the primary suspect in a significant financial fraud affecting customer accounts, the Kota police have begun their enquiry. The authorities are examining potential accomplices and have asked the bank to furnish pertinent documentation. How former ICICI Bank relationship manager committed fraud: 10 Points The investigation revealed that Sakshi Gupta had gained unauthorised access to more than 110 accounts of 41 customers and executed multiple illegal transactions. Investigators found that she had diverted the misappropriated funds into stock market investments, which subsequently resulted in substantial financial losses. In order to hide the deception, Gupta allegedly substituted the registered mobile numbers of various bank accounts with those of her family members. The actual account holders were unable to receive transaction notifications and one-time passwords (OTPs) due to this modification, according to police reports. The investigation revealed multiple fraudulent activities by Gupta, including unauthorised activation of overdraft facilities across 40 accounts. Further findings showed that she had unlawfully terminated fixed deposits belonging to 31 clients, channeling Rs 1.34 crore to different accounts. The probe uncovered her unauthorised usage of debit cards, along with their associated PINs and OTPs, to conduct various online and ATM transactions. Additionally, Gupta was found responsible for processing a fraudulent personal loan amounting to Rs 3.4 lakh. The investigation also established that she had extensively utilised Insta Kiosk machines and digital banking platforms to execute numerous fraudulent transactions. The illicit funds were distributed across several Demat accounts, suggesting an attempt to conceal the money trail. After identifying irregularities, bank manager Tarun Dadhich registered a complaint, which led to a comprehensive audit and subsequent police investigation. "She systematically transferred funds, sometimes using the account of an elderly woman who had no knowledge of the activity as a pool account," said sub-inspector Ibrahim of Udhyog Nagar police station. by Taboola by Taboola Sponsored Links Sponsored Links Promoted Links Promoted Links You May Like 5 Books Warren Buffett Wants You to Read In 2025 Blinkist: Warren Buffett's Reading List Undo "By mid-February 2023, over Rs 3 crore had passed through that single account." Following a one-day police custody, Gupta appeared before the court and was sent to judicial custody. The police continue their enquiries into the matter. A representative from ICICI Bank said, "The interest of our customers are of paramount importance to us. Immediately upon discovering the fraudulent activity, we filed an FIR with the police. We have a zero-tolerance policy against any fraudulent activity and thus suspended the employee involved. We would like to reassure that genuine claims of impacted customers have been settled." Stay informed with the latest business news, updates on bank holidays and public holidays . AI Masterclass for Students. Upskill Young Ones Today!– Join Now
Time of India
10 hours ago
- Business
- Time of India
Cops probe role of others in multi-crore fraud by former ICICI Bank employee
Kota: After ICICI Bank's internal investigation pinpointed Sakshi Gupta, a former relationship manager at the bank's DCM branch in Kota, as the key figure behind a multi-crore fraud involving customer accounts, Kota police have launched an investigation to determine if others were involved and requested relevant documents from the bank. Tired of too many ads? go ad free now Tarun Dadhich, manager of the city's ICICI DCM branch, on Feb 18, 2025, submitted a report at the Udhyog Nagar police station alleging that Gupta, the former relationship manager at the bank, siphoned off Rs 4.58 crore from 110 accounts belonging to 41 customers over a period between 2020 to 2023. Following the police inquiry, Sakshi Gupta was arrested on May 31 and was remanded to judicial custody following a one-day police remand for interrogation. Udhyog Nagar police station Circle Inspector Jitendra Singh said Saturday that while the internal inquiry identified Sakshi Gupta as solely responsible for the fraud, the police have sought additional documents from the bank to probe the possible role of other persons involved with her in orchestrating the multi-crore fraud. However, Singh said, prima facie, no involvement of other persons has surfaced yet. According to the police, Sakshi Gupta withdrew funds from more than 110 accounts belonging to 41 customers over a span of two and a half years, investing the siphoned amounts in the stock market. However, she suffered significant losses. To hide the transactions from customers, she replaced the registered mobile numbers on several accounts with those belonging to her relatives, ensuring that transaction alerts and OTPs were diverted from the actual account holders. In one instance, she used an elderly woman's account—without her knowledge—as a 'pool account', moving over Rs 3 crore through it by Feb 15, 2023. Tired of too many ads? go ad free now The investigation also revealed that Gupta misused debit cards, PINs, and OTPs for unauthorised transactions, and even activated overdraft facilities on 40 accounts without customer consent. Further inquiry found she prematurely closed fixed deposits belonging to 31 customers, redirecting Rs 1.34 crore into unauthorised accounts. A fraudulent personal loan of Rs 3.4 lakh was also disbursed. Multiple transactions were executed using Insta Kiosk installations and digital banking platforms, with Sakshi exploiting four customers' debit cards for ATM and internet banking usage. The proceeds were transferred to demat accounts as part of an attempted cover-up. Meanwhile, an ICICI Bank spokesperson said Friday, "The interest of our customers is of paramount importance to us. Immediately upon discovering the fraudulent activity, we filed an First Information Report with the police. We have a zero-tolerance policy against any fraudulent activity and thus suspended the employee involved. We would like to reassure that genuine claims of impacted customers have been settled. "
The Hindu
a day ago
- The Hindu
ICICI Bank RM allegedly swindles ₹4.58 crore from customer accounts in Kota, loses most of it in stocks
A relationship manager in an ICICI bank branch in Kota allegedly swindled around ₹4.58 crore from customers' accounts only to lose the lot of it in the stock market, police on Friday (June 7, 2025) said. She was arrested last week and is currently under judicial custody, they said. The accused, Sakshi Gupta, was posted as a relationship manager at ICICI Bank's DCM branch. Police said she had been pilfering from more than 110 accounts belonging to 41 customers for around two and a half years. She allegedly invested these amounts in the stock market and lost a large chunk of it, they said. Branch manager Tarun Dadich filed a complaint against her at the Udhyog Nagar Police Station on February 18, accusing her of siphoning ₹4.58 crore from customer accounts. Based on the complaint, Ms. Gupta, who worked at the branch from 2020 to 2023, was arrested on May 31. During the investigation, it was revealed that she changed the mobile numbers linked with several accounts to her relatives' numbers, ensuring that transaction alerts and OTPs were not received by the real account holders. Sub Inspector Ibrahim said Ms. Gupta systematically transferred funds to different accounts, in some cases using an elderly woman's account, who was unaware of the activity, as a "pool account." By February 15, 2023, she had transferred more than Rs 3 crore to this account alone, he said. He alleged that Ms. Gupta misused debit cards, PINs, and OTPs for these transactions, and even activated overdraft facilities on 40 accounts without consent. She prematurely closed fixed deposits of 31 customers' accounts, funnelling over ₹1.34 crore. She also took out a personal loan of ₹3.40 lakh. Police said that many transactions were conducted using Insta Kiosk installations and various digital banking platforms, with at least four customers' debit cards used for ATM and internet banking. Proceeds from these activities were sent to demat accounts as part of the attempted cover-up. Ms. Gupta was arrested from her parental home in Chittorgarh district's Rawatbhata. She was sent to judicial custody after a one-day remand for interrogation, SI Ibrahim said. Meanwhile, an ICICI Bank spokesperson, in a press note, said, "The interests of our customers are of paramount importance to us. Immediately upon discovering the fraudulent activity, we filed an FIR with the police. "We have a zero-tolerance policy against any fraudulent activity and thus suspended the employee involved. We would like to reassure that genuine claims of impacted customers have been settled."
Hindustan Times
a day ago
- Hindustan Times
Kota ICICI Bank employee swindles ₹4.5 crore from customers, blows it on stock market
A relationship manager of an ICICI bank branch in Rajasthan's Kota reportedly swindled around ₹4.58 crore from customers' accounts and lost most of it in the stock market, police said on Friday. The accused named Sakshi Gupta was posted as a relationship manager at ICICI Banks's DCM branch, according to a PTI news agency. The woman was arrested last week from her parental home in Chittorgarh district's Rawatbhata and was sent to judicial custody after a day's remand for interrogation. According to police, Gupta has been pilfering from more that 110 accounts belonging to 41 customers for around two years at the Kota branch. She allegedly invested this amount in the stock market and lost the majority of it. The complaint against her was filed by the branch manager Tarun Dadich at Udhyog Nagar Police Station on February 18. The complaint accused her of siphoning ₹4.58 crore from customer accounts. To make the siphoning easier, Gupta used to change the mobile number linked with the account holders, to her relative's numbers, ensuring that customers do not receive transaction alerts or OTPs. Gupta systematically transferred funds to different accounts, in some cases using an elderly women's account who was unaware of the activities, as a 'pool account,' said Sub Inspector Ibrahim. Through her siphoning, Gupta transferred more than ₹3 crore to this account by February 15, 2023. Sub Inspector Ibrahim also alleged that Gupta misused debit cards, PINs, and OTPs for these transactions, and even activated overdraft facilities on 40 accounts without consent. In addition to this, she permanently closed fixed deposits of 31 customers and funneled over Rs. 1.34 crore, while also taking a personal loan of Rs. 3.40 lakh. Police said that many transactions were conducted using Insta Kiosk installations and various digital banking platforms, with debit cards of at least 4 customers used for ATM and internet banking. In an attempt to cover up these activities, money from them was sent to demat accounts. Meanwhile, an ICICI Bank spokesperson, in a press note, said that the interest of costumes is most important and upon discovering the activities the bank immediately filed an FIR. "We have a zero-tolerance policy against any fraudulent activity,' they said, adding that the employee has been suspended and genuine claims of impacted customers have been settled.
Time of India
a day ago
- Business
- Time of India
Rs 4.58 crore stolen from ICICI bank customers: Broke FDs, created overdraft and personal loan; how lady relationship manager executed fraud
Such was the addiction of stock market trading that a 26-year-old girl working as an ICICI Bank relationship manager stole Rs 4.58 crore from innocent customers of the bank to do speculative investments in stock market futures and options (F&O). This young girl, did not even leave her family members as she took money from her father-in-law as well to trade in the stock market F&O. Kota, Rajasthan Police SP has revealed to us that most of these customers from whose accounts she stole the money to fuel her stock market ambitions were senior citizens who were not so tech savvy. The police also revealed that she covered her tracks and digital footprint so well that even her colleagues and the branch manager could not catch a whiff of it. It was the bank's internal audit team who managed to crack this scam and expose it. As soon as the ICICI Bank 's audit team flagged this scam, the bank's branch manager filed a FIR case against her accusing of running this elaborate scam. Based on this FIR she was arrested by Udyog Nagar police station, Kota, Rajasthan on May 31, 2025 at her sister's wedding. The charge-sheet is yet to be filed and police said it will be done once the full investigation is over. How did this 26-year-old girl manage to loot Rs 4.58 crore without anybody noticing? Dilip Saini, Additional Superintendent of Police (SP), Kota, Rajasthan told ET Wealth Online that, 'She is now 26 years old and this crime was committed by her from 2020 to 2023 i.e. during her period of employment with ICICI Bank. Our police investigation has revealed that she used multiple stock broking websites and apps like ICICI Direct, Zerodha (Kite), to trade in the derivative segment (Future and Options).' Live Events When asked how no customer of the bank noticed this scam which she ran for three years, Saini told: "She even changed the mobile number of customers to her own close relative's numbers so that they don't know about these transactions.' As the OTPs and alerts never reached the real account holders and these customers never checked their bank balance also, it was made easy for her to run this scam. When the Rajasthan Police interrogated her, she revealed that most of these illegal and unauthorised transactions were done by her through the ICICI Bank 's Insta Kiosk and digital banking channels. The police investigation found that she changed entries in the bank's internal software to hide her activities. Also read: ICICI Bank branch manager duped depositors of crores for years to meet targets She used a pool account to gather all the money she stole by prematurely broke FDs, created overdrafts and even created personal loans in customer's name She withdrew funds from FD accounts by prematurely breaking them, created overdrafts, and even took personal loans in innocent customer's names, without any of them knowing or authorising it. Saini said: "Investigation also revealed that she used a third party's account as a pool account to collect all the money she took out by prematurely withdrawing the FDs, creating overdrafts (ODs) and even personal loans in the customer's name.' She used ICICI Bank customer's online FD website to prematurely break fixed deposits belonging to 31 customers and transferred Rs 1.35 crore into unauthorised accounts. She also took out a personal loan of Rs 3.4 lakh in someone else's name and executed transactions through digital platforms such as Insta Kiosk, ATM, and internet banking — even using debit cards of four unsuspecting customers. A pool account is an account where all the collected money from the other FD, OD, loan accounts are deposited in a single place and from here she then transfers the money to her demat account. This method saved her time, as managing money from 40 or so bank accounts is more difficult than doing it from one single account. Saini explained: 'Moreover, our investigation also revealed that she even took money from her father-in-law and invested that in the stock market. It seems from our investigation that despite losing money in the stock market trades, she used to invest more and more money by taking it from innocent customers' different types of bank accounts (FD, OD, etc).' ICICI Bank's audit team exposed this scam Saini said: 'This scam that she used to run during her employment (2020-2023) was brought to our notice by the ICICI Bank branch manager who in turn was informed by the bank's internal audit team. Although we arrested her, but we believe such a small age girl could not have managed to conduct this scam alone, there must be other accomplices. We are still investigating. We have traced all the affected bank customers and found most of them were senior citizens who are not so tech savvy and merely invested in FDs and other banking products.' An ICICI Bank spokesperson said, 'The interest of our customers are of paramount importance to us. Immediately upon discovering the fraudulent activity, we filed an FIR with the police. We have a zero-tolerance policy against any fraudulent activity and thus suspended the employee involved. We would like to reassure that genuine claims of impacted customers have been settled.'
