Citi Fraud: Aggarwal won’t pursue arrest of Vikram Pandit

“With reference to the FIR registered on January 4,2011 concerning the fraudulent investment of funds from our account,we have today decided not to pursue our complaints against Citibank and senior management,” Helion Advisor Managing Director Sanjeev Aggarwal said in a statement.

“Through discussions with Citibank,we have been apprised of additional facts we were not aware of earlier,and the complaints against Citibank and its executive officers is not appropriate,” he said.

Aggarwal claimed about Rs 33 crore loss in the fraud. Earlier this month,Citibank had said it was working towards providing “fair compensation” to its affected customers,who are high networth individuals (HNIs).

“We have since been in contact with our impacted customers and are committed to safeguarding our customers’ legitimate interests,” Citibank statement had said.

When contacted Deswal told PTI,”after FIR,the case is a state property and we will investigate the case. Comments of the complainant has no legal value.”

One of the relationship managers,Shivraj Puri,at Gurgaon branch of Citibank allegedly duped HNIs and corporates of their money and routed it to stock exchange.

Aggarwal said,”We regret any inadvertent impact of the complaint has had on the reputation of Citibank and its senior executive officers.”

Other victims of the fraud include big names such as the promoters of the Hero Group (Rs 250-crore).

Entities whose funds were allegedly diverted by Puri to the stock market include OKS Span Tech (Rs 2 crore),Satyam Auto (Rs 25 crore),Mayar Infratech (Rs 24 crore),Spaid (Rs 62 crore),Karopat Pad (Rs 8 crore),Aero Infratec (Rs 25 crore) and Munab Braej (Rs 71 crore).