Ponzi at Citi: Hero bigwig joins Puri behind bars

The questioning of Hero Group's top executives by the Gurgaon police in connection with the Rs300-crore fraud at the local branch of Citibank was apparently not without reason - Sanjay Gupta, assistant vice-president (accounts) of Hero Corporate Services, was arrested on Monday for playing a key role in defrauding investors.

Gupta's arrest comes five days after the prime suspect in the scam, Shivraj Puri, a relationship manager at the bank's DLF Phase-II branch, surrendered and was later arrested.

What began as a case of fraud is now turning out to be one of collusion between the main accused, Citibank customer relationship executive Puri (who has reportedly sung like a bird under police grilling) and top corporate executives like Gupta.

According to the police, Gupta made a profit of Rs20 crore through the scam by allegedly inveigling staff of the Hero Group to invest money amounting to Rs200 crore in his two firms - BG Finance and G2S Management Consultants.

Puri and Gupta allegedly had a deal to first get the money deposited in Gupta's company, from where Puri would siphon it off to one of his 'fake' accounts (in the name of his relatives). Eighty-one such accounts have been traced by the police.

Gupta also had accounts in the name of his two firms with the Axis Bank, which have been frozen now. ''The accounts had Rs5 crore, which he made from Puri's dealings,'' said a senior police officer.