So, what happens if :
A sauve, mature Banker with a Citibank visiting card visits you; pitches a bank approved scheme that promises much better returns than the other deals out there and also shows you SEBI (equivalent of the Federal reserve) circulars certifying the scheme?
While you ponder, thousands of naive customers have fallen for a massive scam at Citibank India Delhi and have been defrauded to the extent of 400 Crores (95 million US$).
This event drives me to ask the following questions:
– Sure, the fraud is not of the bank but of an individual in Citibank. Having said so, what were the supervisors and heads of business of that individual doing? If any of your team members are out there (and extensively working on their own projects…coz 400 crores takes a while to collect) – isn’t there a daily/weekly activity report of who is doing what- that supervisors review? Just last week my investor commented that I seemed to be spending too much time on my blogs and social activities!!
It seems that large Companies (500+ employees) have lost track of their people’s time spends. The large global profits bankrolls the organisation and then everything begins to blur out…
– What kind of internal controls exist in the big firms we trust?? Does this mean that my bank’s letterheads, accounting software, report generation systems can all be hacked and manipulated? I pay massive ‘management fees’ and extra service charges for safety – not for sloppy and hackable systems!!
Hmmmm…are my mutual fund statements genuine? Is my reality fund really reporting what flats they own? is my demat statement for real? or do I need to get hyper active on Linkedin and start contacting Ashok Pandit to check up on the genuineness of my Citibank accounts statements?
– Why is Citibank quiet? Are they preparing for new years eve? The scam is out for 2 days now – why aren’t there ads in all the papers clarifing the situation and assuring me and the rest of their customers that they are addressing the problem and are doing x, y, z towards making things normal?
– What makes a senior experienced banker like Puri actually use bank cheques and custodian accounts to siphon the money? Surely he knows that every banking transaction is traceable and can easily be traced all the way to the starting point. What is he thinking? What makes his so bloody bold??
There is an old Marwari saying – never change your banker, your lawyer, your doctor and your accountant, coz your life is in their hands..
I wonder if that saying has lived its life??