Indian-origin mastermind of international fraud sentenced in US

Tag : Indian origin

An Indian-origin man who masterminded a major international fraudthat led to $680 million in losses to 20 banks worldwide hasescaped with a lighter sentence of seven months in prison, the timehe has already served.

Anil Anand, former chief financial officer of Allied Deals Inc-- ametals trading firm, was also asked by US District Court to pay$683.6 million in restitution.

Anand, 46, had pleaded guilty to the charges in 2002 and faced upto30 years in prison but escaped with a lenient sentence because hecooperated with prosecutors which resulted in the arrest at least15 people.

The defrauded banks, located in the Unitd States, Europe and Asia,included JP Morgan Chase & Co, Fleet National Bank; PNC Bank;Dresdner Bank Lateinamerika AG; China Trust Bank; and Hypo VereinsBank.

US District Attorney for Southern District of New York Michael JGarcia said Allied Deals companies were controlled by brothersNarendra Rastogi in the US and Virendra Rastogi in Britain.

Anand and the Rastogi brothers and their co-conspirators had set upand controlled an elaborate network of hundreds of sham, nomineecompanies around the world to serve as fake purchasers of metalfrom Allied Deals so that the defendants could get loans from thevictim banks.

But the prosecutors said "hundreds, if not thousands," of metaltransactions upon which the loans were based simply did not exist.