Goldman Sachs V-P, ex-staffer held for siphoning off $5.4 mn

36-YEAR-OLD ASHWANI JHUNJHUNWALA HAS BEEN ACCUSED OF COMMITTING THE FRAUD AFTER INCURRING LOSSES OF MORE THAN ~50L IN ONLINE POKER

BENGALURU: A 36-year-old vicepresident of global investment bank Goldman Sachs and a former employee have been arrested for allegedly siphoning off $5.4 million (about ~38.4 crore) from the company’s bank accounts through fraudulent transactions, Bengaluru police said.

Ashwani Jhunjhunwala, the executive, and ex-employee Vedant Rungta were arrested on Monday. Jhunjhunwala, who has been working with the company as VP– foreign exchange and equity settlements for the past four years, is accused of committing the fraud after incurring losses of more than ~50 lakh in online poker. He was aided in committing the fraud by former employee Rungta, the police said.

Jhunjhunwala, and Rungta were arrested after the legal head of Goldman Sachs Services Pvt Ltd, Abhishek Parasheera, registered a complaint with the Marathalli police station under sections 408 (criminal breach of trust), 409 (breach of trust by a public servant or banker), 419 (cheating by impersonation) and 420 (cheating) of the Indian Penal Code on Sunday.

Marathalli police officers said the crime was committed on September 4 when Jhunjhunwala approached his juniors on the pretext of training them; he made them log into their computers and transferred funds to a private bank account during their absence by sending them away on small errands, to fetch food, water and so on

The fraud apparently came to the attention of the company on September 6 when it was flagged by another employee and an internal investigation was launched. The three juniors of Jhunjhunwala - Gaurav Mishra, Sujith Appaiah and Abhisek Yadav - who reported to him were also questioned. The company then approached the police on September 8. Jhunjhunwala is accused of using the login credentials of Mishra in the guise of reviewing his work and then setting up a third-party settlement instruction of an entity named Synergy Wisdom Ltd in Hong Kong and trying to transfer the money in two tranches to an account at Industrial and Commercial Bank of China Ltd. In this he is said to have been guided by Rungta, the former employee.