Gurugram:

An alleged fraudster, claiming to be the Human Resources head of a multi-national company, duped HSBC Bank of more than Rs 2 crore, police said.

The accused opened 38 salary accounts in the names of “employees”, got 28 credit cards issued and took two loans. But neither were the loans cleared nor the payment for the credit cards made, police said.

An FIR was registered at the Sushant Lok police station in this regard, they added.

According to the complaint filed by Saurabh Abrol, an authorised representative of HSBC Bank, a fraud of more than Rs 2 crore was committed by the accused. Some credit card and loan holders were not paying the bank and could not even be contacted.

When the bank investigated at its own level, a major fraud was detected which took place between December 2022 and June 2023, he said.

Mr Abrol said in his complaint that a person named Sachin Kathuria, posing as the HR head of a multi-national company, had met the staff of the bank at the Sector 44 branch.

He got salary accounts opened in the bank in the names of 38 people, presenting them as the company’s employees.

Money was credited as salaries in these accounts every month, according to the complaint.

“On the basis of the regular transactions, 28 credit cards and two loans were issued by the bank, whose repayment was not made. When the bank proceeded with an investigation at its level, it was found that the money coming into these accounts in the name of salary was immediately withdrawn through debit cards,” Mr Abrol said.

“The addresses given by these employees while opening bank accounts were also fake. When we checked the photographs of all these account holders, they did not match. We also started an inquiry against four bank officials who opened these accounts, issued credit cards and loans,” he said in his complaint.

After a preliminary investigation, an FIR has been registered against Kathuria and others under sections 420 (cheating), 467 (forgery of valuable security), 468 (forgery for purpose of cheating), 471 (using forged document) and 120-B (criminal conspiracy) of the Indian Penal Code on Friday, police said.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

HSBC Holdings Plc is blocking staff from texting on their work phones, in the latest fallout from regulatory probes into the industry’s use of unauthorized communication methods. 

The firm is in the process of disabling the function on employees’ company-issued phones, meaning they will be unable to send or receive text messages, according to people with knowledge of the matter. The ban on SMS applies across the bank, the people said, asking not to be identified because the information is private. 

HSBC had already blocked staff from using WhatsApp on work phones earlier, the people said. 

“Banks use a wide range of approved channels to communicate in compliance with regulatory obligations,” a spokesperson for the bank said. “HSBC, like many other banks, reviews and adjusts functionality on its corporate devices as needed.” 

A small number of workers in regulated roles will still be allowed to send text messages on phones where the activity is archived, one of the people said. Personal devices remain unaffected, the people said. 

The move comes as financial watchdogs investigate the devices and systems used by traders and dealmakers to share information, and the way their employers keep track of these. It’s aimed in part at preventing financial misconduct after high-profile cases of market manipulation at some of the biggest banks on Wall Street. 

Earlier this year, HSBC agreed to pay tens of millions of dollars in settlements to US regulators over its failure to monitor employees’ communications on unauthorized messaging apps, including WhatsApp. HSBC paid $30 million to the Commodity Futures Trading Commission and another $15 million to the Securities and Exchange Commission. 

Overall, financial firms including Bank of America Corp., Wells Fargo & Co., Barclays Plc and Citigroup Inc. have agreed to pay more than $2.5 billion to US regulators for violating recordkeeping rules. 

Under regulators’ rules, firms must keep an eye on their employees’ communications with clients to track conduct. In addition to large investment banks, major private equity firmsand hedge funds have also being probed for their use of apps and personal phones.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)