To give the devil its due, I have come to accept a
fraudster is an out of the box thinker! In most cases the fraud is a crude
deceit but in some cases it is indeed quite sophisticated and one can see
flashes of rare brilliance of convoluted variety ! Some of these worthies out
think the system and its current operational dynamics! Unwittingly a fraudster
exposes the chinks of the system, albeit for his personal benefit!!
I will briefly narrate a fraud that took place in a
private bank about a decade back!
Let’s say the name of the protagonist in this case
is Alex (name changed of course). He went to a private bank, which primarily
operates in South India and requested credit facilities for a small business
that he was running. He was already its customer for a few years at that point
of time. The loan was sought against the receivables in his business and the
secondary security was the land property in his native village deep inside
Thiruvallur district bordering Chennai city.
When the bank officials visited the village along
with their engineer to assess the property, he took them to the site and then
led them to the sub-registrar’s office where he asked in their presence about
the Government guideline value for the survey no. of the property sought to be
offered as collateral security. The sub-registrar referred the concerned
register and informed him and the officials that it is Rs.10,000/- per cent. It
was far too high a rate for a remote village property but nevertheless the
bankers noted the figure and the team left the office.
It is generally believed (but not always true) that
the Government rates for land are invariably lower than market rates at any
point of time. This is the one of the causes for black money generation in real
estate deals, for the property is always registered exactly at the Government
value and the rest of the consideration is transacted in cash. Any way let’s
leave the black money part aside as it is not relevant to the issue on hand in
this case.
Back at the office Alex explained to the bankers and
their engineer that the property is worth at-least Rs.15,000/- per cent as the
market rate is higher than the guideline value by 50% and more. This was
accepted and the engineer certified the value at Rs.14,000/- per cent, with
some conservatism thrown in. For an extent of 5 acres or thereabouts, i.e. 500
cents, the value was pegged at Rs.70 lacs. The bank took comfort from the fact
that their lending will be only about 60% of the above value at Rs. 40 lacs.
Soon after the paper work was completed the amount
was disbursed in two tranches.
After the holiday period of 12 months the repayment
was to start. Nothing happened and the customer was nowhere in sight. Calls to
him went unanswered. After a few months when the account was about to turn an
NPA, the bank official went in search of the borrower and finally located him
in his business place. The business was wound up by then. There was no activity
of any sort and it was a rented premises. The borrower narrated his woes saying
that he went into grave losses as the orders were drying up due to China
factor, that collections were not materializing and he had to close down the
operations and dispose off the plant & machinery. Oh! yes! He remembered
his dues to the bank but was helpless, he pleaded. No doubt, the bank could
take over his secondary security and dispose it off and collect its dues. He
did not want die as a debtor, he proclaimed proudly for good measure. Whatever
help the bank needed in this process, he would willingly extend, he added
gracefully!
The bank’s higher ups were informed and the legal
process for sale of security was set in motion. When the property was put on
block the bank to its utter shock realized that its true worth was about one
tenth of its assessed value i.e. Rs.7-8 lacs was the value range the market was
willing to offer vis-à-vis Rs.70 lacs determined during pre-sanction
due-diligence.
How did things go so horribly wrong?
It was to later emerge that Alex played the system
so beautifully and the realization of the contours of the web of deceit he cast
so elegantly would leave the bank officials completely flummoxed. His
modus-operandi went like this:
About six months prior to his application for loan,
he ‘sold off’ a small portion of 2 cents of his land in the same survey no. at
an astronomical price that was 10 times the Government rate that prevailed
earlier. If the then Government rate was, say, Rs.1,000/- per cent (i.e. Rs.1
lac per acre), the 2 cent land was sold for Rs.20,000/- as against the
government value of Rs.2000/-; stamp duty was paid for the said Rs. 20000/-. He
enacted two such transactions in a gap of two months. Both these transactions
were within his family (the term ‘related party transaction’ was not in vogue then)
and so his net investment was only the stamp duty and registration charges he
paid as no consideration was actually paid or received.
Consequent to these transactions, as per the
procedures/rules laid down, the Government guideline rate for this survey no.
was revised based on the last transactional value; on the strength of Alex’s
2-cent micro transactions, this was officially pegged at Rs.10,000/- per cent,
which was later confirmed to the bank officials as noted in the earlier part of
this story.
Thus having engineered an artificially high
Government rate for the land, he pulled off this fraud by taking a huge loan
against this property convincing all concerned that the Government rate being
what it was, the true market value ought to be higher. This was not challenged
by anybody as it was kind of an accepted wisdom in these parts of the country.
Having got a sum which was at least seven to eight times his land’s real worth
there was no way he was going to repay the borrowed money!
That Government’s guideline rate can be so easily
manipulated to unleash such a fraud was a revelation to the bank and its
engineer!
When the author who was not aware of this story was
asked to give an opinion about the property some two years after the loan went
bad, he inspected the site and assessed it at about Rs.2000/- per cent; i.e.
Rs.10 lacs overall. Finally after few more months the bank managed to sell it
off for Rs.12 lacs or thereabouts and in this process the bank took a hit of
Rs. 28 lacs plus interest.
A proper technical due-diligence of property would
have helped the bank avoid this pitfall!
Alex is said to have reinvested the proceeds that he
palmed off from the bank and he is now comfortably off, it is believed!
Do write to us in case you have some interesting
information or feedback!
BVe Consulting Engineers
Engineering Project Consultancy & Property
Advisory Services,
Residential-Commercial-Industrial-Infrastructure
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Due-diligence studies -Asset valuation services
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