The Bankster (Ravi Subramanian) (27 page)

‘Okay, now that we are sure that Raymond was killed, and that Asia Logistics was a benami account, there has to be something linking the two. My gut says that our hypothesis has to be true. And Kavya, if there is something linking the two of them, it has to show up in the statement.’ He picked up the transaction summary of Asia Logistics’ current account and started going through it.

‘What a fucking bastard he is!’ He exclaimed, partly out of anger and partly out of frustration.

‘Language, Karan!’

‘Hmm. . . This guy has brought in ten crores in the last three months—all through overseas remittances and has withdrawn about eight crores in cash from all over the country.’

‘I saw that Karan.’

‘And the withdrawals have been made from all over the country—largely through branches in Kolkata, Mumbai, Chennai, Cochin and Delhi.’

‘Cochin?’ Kavya asked, surprised that she hadn’t noticed this when she had seen the transactions.

‘Yes. There have been large withdrawals from Cochin. I’m surprised no one noticed.’

‘The branch is supposed to report large cash withdrawals to head office and even report suspicious transactions to the Reserve Bank. Wonder how no one highlighted it?’ Kavya showed off her knowledge of banking processes and then after a moment’s thought added, ‘Maybe they did. All their reporting on suspicious transactions would go to Raymond right? Raymond is not here to tell us about it.’ Karan’s eyes were firmly fixed on the transaction sheet.

‘When was the last withdrawal from the Cochin branch?’ Kavya asked him.

‘Let me see. . .Today!’

‘Today?’ Kavya was surprised.

‘Yes Kavya, today. There has been a cash withdrawal at around ten o’clock this morning. This transaction dump has been taken off the system at 11.04 a.m. and the last transaction in the account has been before that. . .and that too, from Cochin. In fact there has been a strange lull in this account. For the last ten days there have been heavy withdrawals. Prior to that there has been no cash withdrawal from Cochin in over a month.’ He was quiet for a couple of minutes. Kavya could make out that he was doing some calculations. ‘Over three crores of cash withdrawn from Cochin in the last two months. Very strange.’

‘What do we do?’

‘Call the Branch Manager Kavya. Tell him you are calling from the compliance team. Out station branches normally don’t know the junior blokes in the Head Office teams. So they will believe you and will not realize that you are lying. Ask them how they allowed someone to withdraw over three crores in cash over the last two months. Why was it not reported?’

‘Arre. . .you just said that it’s possible that they have reported it, and Raymond is not here to tell you about it. If we ask someone else in the compliance team about it, they will tell us. Why go through this façade?’

‘We don’t have time to go through all that. In case they have reported these cash withdrawals as suspicious, they will say so. In case they haven’t, but they know something about this, they will tell us. Even if they don’t know anything, atleast we will know that they fucked up.’

‘I’m calling them right now. In case they reported anything suspicious, I will ask them to forward the details to Jacqueline’s ID.’

‘Super.’

Karan went back to the transactions in the account for clues. There was something that was wrong in the statement. But it was eluding him. He removed his shoes, pulled a chair next to him and put his feet up on it. Hands supporting his head from behind, he stretched a bit, eyes wandering all over the room, but staring at nothing. The projector, the screen, the Bose speakers, the cherry wood panelling, the anti-fire sprinklers, the brightly lit fluorescent bulb, the smoke detectors, the security cameras, the square cut panelled roof. . .Suddenly he straightened up. ‘Security cameras!’ he exclaimed. His eyes were wide open. He was now staring at one thing and only one thing. ‘Why didn’t I think of it earlier?’

He quickly ran to Jacqueline’s desk. Kavya was already making the call. Seeing him approach, she put the call on hold. ‘All okay?’

‘Yes Yes. All okay.’ He had hardly dashed for twenty metres, but he was panting as if he had run a marathon. The excitement was getting to him. ‘The security cameras,’ he said pointing to the one in Jacqueline’s room.

‘What about them?’ Jacqueline suddenly jumped in. ‘They are working.’

‘No no. Not these Jacqueline. There will surely be security cameras installed at the cash counters in Cochin. Ask them to stream the images that the security camera captured around the time the cash was withdrawn from Asia Logistics. We can see who withdrew the cash from the bank. That might give us some clues.’

‘Oh. Cool. Good stuff.’ Kavya was proud that she was in love with this man, who was proving to be more of a private investigator than a banker. Karan returned to the boardroom, leaving Kavya to make the call in peace.

In five minutes, Kavya was back in the conference room. ‘They don’t have it.’

‘What?’

‘They don’t have the videos that the camera captured.’

‘What crap? They are supposed to retain them for some time. It’s a requirement as per global norms. At least, it used to be so when I was the Branch Manager. Unless things have changed now.’

‘Yes Karan,’ Kavya replied, patiently. ‘The video is streamed centrally these days. Branches don’t store the videos. The Central Security Team in Mumbai will have them. Jacqueline is talking to them to get it. We should have it in about 20-30 minutes.’

‘Oh wow. You are wonderful Kavya.’

‘Thanks Karan. I know that.’

‘And what about the reporting of the high value cash transactions? What did they have to say on that?’

‘I asked them. Told them that I am calling from Indrani’s office. Didn’t lie to them that I am in compliance.’

‘In fact, calling from Indrani’s office must have given you a greater leverage,’ Karan smiled.

‘Yes. And you know what? They gave me a very strange response. The branch manager told me that they didn’t raise a suspicious transaction report when the Asia Logistics guys withdrew huge amounts of cash because they were told that the account was opened with Vikram’s reference.’

‘And who told them that?’

‘Zinaida, the RM who opened the account. It was also corroborated by the branch manager, Anand Shastri.’

‘Does this mean the entire money laundering scheme is being run with the connivance of such senior employees? Is Vikram involved? Oh shit.’

‘Hold on hold on. Let’s not jump to conclusions. I am getting scared here. Hope I don’t lose my job after the dust settles on this.’

‘Unless Zinaida and Anand lied. But why would they?’ Karan completely ignored the other concern raised by Kavya.

A mail popped up on Kavya’s screen. It was from Jacqueline. ‘Here, the details of the sixty-eight accounts have come.’

‘Okay, move. Let me see. These are accounts where huge sums of money have come in from overseas and all of it has been taken out through cash withdrawals. Right?’

‘Yes. Yes. Yes. . .for the umpteenth time. . .YES! Transactions of all these accounts, scanned copies of account opening forms and everything else that you might need.’ Kavya frowned. ‘Wish I had that much cash to withdraw from my account.’

‘Hehe, I am sure one day you will Kavya.’ And Karan hugged her. Kavya pushed him away. ‘Security cameras dumbo.’

They got down to reviewing the documentation related to the sixty-eight accounts. As in the case of Asia Logistics, in all these accounts, the documentation was perfect. Account opening forms filled up perfectly, KYC in place, visit report by RMs in place. Everything done as per procedure. . .but there was one fact which was intriguingly common across all these accounts—they had a HOLD instruction for all communication from the bank.

Karan scrolled to the list of RMs managing these accounts, ‘Let’s see the RM list. I wonder if any of them were around when I was with GB2. Hmm. . .Ram Sharma. . .don’t know him. . .Gulqbal. . .don’t know him. . .Ramesh Yadav. . .don’t know him. . .Abhijeet Bhandekar. . .never heard of him. . .Zinaida Gomes. . .we just heard of her,’ and he looked up and smiled at Kavya. ‘There is no common thread in the names or branches of these RMs. They are spread all over,’ Karan said, thinking aloud.

‘You think there is merit in looking at these RMs in detail? Their backgrounds, their performance appraisals etc?’ Kavya asked.

‘I don’t know. But there’s no harm in it. Ask for their personal files from HR. Let’s see if there is anything common in their backgrounds.’

‘I’ll tell Jacqueline.’

In no time, a representative from HR came up with some fifty files.

‘Why so many? We needed the files pertaining to only thirteen RMs na?’ Karan was surprised to see so many files being piled into the room.

Yes, but if I had asked for just thirteen files from HR, they might have suspected something. So I added some other names to the list and asked for all their files. No one will know who we are looking at.’

‘Smart,’ said Karan, impressed.

‘Learning from you sir,’ Kavya just smiled.

Karan picked out the files of the thirteen RMs and walked to a corner of the room. He wanted to go through them and evaluate for himself whether they were working as a consortium. Any trends there would give him some clues.

Kavya was collating some of the other reports that Karan had asked her to put together. Out of sheer curiosity, for one last time, she picked up the transaction sheet pertaining to Asia Logistics and cursorily glanced through it. ‘Karan, isn’t something wrong here?’

Karan looked up at Kavya with raised eyebrows.

‘How likely is it that a non-Muslim religious foundation transfers funds to Asia Logistics, a firm held by Muslims—Asad Ansari and the other guy, whose name I keep forgetting?’

‘Very unlikely, why? But anything is possible, given the fraudulent nature of the Asia Logistics account.’

‘Almost all the amount that has come into the account of Asia Logistics is via a boutique bank in Liechtenstein. And that too from an account of UJF which stands for the Union of Jews Foundation.’

‘I saw that. The statement mentions that the remittance has come in from UJF. How do you know it’s the Union of Jews Foundation? It could be anything.’

‘I know. The statement of Asia Logistics doesn’t mention it. But look at this account in Delhi, which is one of the sixty-eight suspected accounts. The credits into this account are from the account of the Union of Jews Foundation, and have come in through the same bank in Liechtenstein. I am just co-relating it with the Asia Logistics account—Liechtenstein, remittances, money laundering etc. there is too much in common. In this background, UJF can’t be anything but the Union of Jews Foundation. While making the data entry for their respective accounts, the person who does the data entry for Mumbai accounts would have been lazy and entered the abbreviation UJF in the account of Asia Logistics.’

‘Yes Kavya. You are right. This is the Union of Jews Foundation. Why would the UJF transfer money to these accounts?’ and after a pause added, ‘Unless it’s a scam. And the fact that it is coming from a bank in Liechtenstein does raise a few eyebrows.’

‘As in?’

‘You know what Liechtenstein is popular for. This tiny country sandwiched between Austria and Switzerland owes much of its wealth to its reputation as a tax haven. I’ve heard that drug lords from Columbia, Mexico and other countries have often used Liechtenstein as a base to launder money, till one day they were exposed.’

‘Hmm. . .’

‘Even now it’s a known haven for launderers and tax evaders. Anyway, now that you point it out and we know that money has come from the Union of Jews Foundation, we have only one hope of finding out where they are located.’

‘Google?’ Kavya asked innocently.

‘Arre no re. The Foreign Inward Remittance Certificate (FIRC). It should have the address of the remitter. A FIRC is normally given to all bank customers who get inward remittances into their account from overseas. The FIRC has all the details of the transaction, including the name and address of the remitter. Why don’t you call remittances and ask them for a copy of the FIRC?’

‘I don’t think that will be necessary. A copy of the FIRC goes to the customer too. Since all these accounts have correspondence on HOLD, the remittance certificate would in all probability have been sent to the branches instead of the customer. I’ll call the Bandra branch and ask them to fax the latest Inward Remittance certificate. If they don’t have it, I’ll call the remittances department.’

‘Sounds great to me.’

The FIRC was in the Bandra Branch. It took them just five minutes to locate it and fax it across to Jacqueline.

‘There you go,’ she said as she walked in and handed over the certificate to Karan.

‘What the bloody hell?’ Karan saw the name and address of the remitter and nearly fell off his chair. He looked really shocked. ‘Is this what killed Harshita?’ And he stared at Kavya who was staring back at him, puzzled. Dazed, he looked back at the sheet of paper and said, ‘It probably did!’

33

Vienna Morning of 31
^st
January 2012

Schottenring, an area situated between the historic city centre and Alsergrund in downtown Vienna, is well known for the stock exchange. It also houses the Office of the President of Vienna Police.

Sitting in his office in Schottenring, Johann Schroeder was ecstatic when Richard Anderson came to meet him. When the latter had first come to the office of Vienna’s President of Police, he was shooed away. No one allowed him to see the president or his deputy. He had somehow managed to get the email ID of Schroeder and had sent him a mail requesting for a meeting, mentioning the agenda. So compelling was the reason for his request that Schroeder had called off a few meetings to accommodate him. That explained why Richard Anderson was sitting in front of him that morning.

The Deputy to the President of Police stared calmly at Richard, who looked rather meek in his presence. Richard, who was of Indian origin, was a young guy in his mid-twenties who aspired to be a body-builder, but had nothing done about his aspirations, as evidenced by his waistline.