India’s ABG Shipyard in dock for $3b fraud

India’s federal police charged the founders of ABG Shipyard Ltd and the company for allegedly causing a massive loss of about Rs228.4 billion ($3 billion, Dh11 billion) to banks, including the nation’s largest lender State Bank of India and private sector ICICI Bank Ltd.

This is bigger than the $2 billion fraud — considered to be India’s largest — that disgraced diamond dealer Nirav Modi is alleged to have conducted around four years back. Read:

The Indian shipbuilding company allegedly cheated a consortium of 28 banks and diverted the loans given by the lenders, the Central Bureau of Investigation said in a statement yesterday. The federal agency said it acted on a compliant from the SBI. Searches were conducted at the premises of ABG Shipyard and its directors, leading “to recovery of incriminating documents”, the CBI said, adding that the “investigation is continuing”. Officials at ABG Shipyard were not available to comment.

The struggling company, which was a major player in India’s shipbuilding industry, was among the “dirty dozen” referred by the Reserve Bank of India to be taken up under the Insolvency and Bankruptcy code in 2016.