Former exec of finserv firm booked for duping diamond trader of ₹7.63 cr

A former employee of Motilal Oswal Finance Services Limited (MOFSL) in Mumbai has been booked for allegedly duping a diamond trader of ₹7.63 crore. The accused, Vishwanathan Iyer, was a senior administrator who acted as the relationship manager for the complainant. Iyer transferred money from the trader's accounts to his own personal accounts and forged accounts to show profits. He has been booked under various sections of the Indian Penal Code.

MUMBAI: A former senior level employee of Motilal Oswal Finance Services Limited (MOFSL) was booked by the Economic Offences Wing (EOW) of Mumbai Police for allegedly duping a diamond trader of ₹7.63 crore.

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According to EOW officials, the accused Vishwanathan Iyer was a senior administrator with MOFSL, who began acting as the relationship manager for the complainant Mukesh Shah, 72, after 2019. Iyer initially gave Shah good returns to gain his confidence, but later transferred money from his trading accounts to his own personal accounts.

Shah’s businesses included import, export and diamond manufacture. He lived in Prabhadevi and had an office in Opera House, said officials. “He, his daughter and his wife have demat accounts with MOFSL since 2016 and he has invested around ₹15 crore in shares through the company,” said a police officer.

In 2019, when Shah expressed displeasure over low returns on his investments with MOFSL, he was introduced to Iyer. As Shah’s relationship manager, he pledged shares owned by the latter and started dealing in futures, commodities and currency derivatives markets.

“After Iyer started handling Shah’s investment accounts, he got good returns and started believing in Iyer, who even asked him to ignore the periodic emails from the company,” said the police officer.

Shah started incurring losses during the COVID-19 pandemic and subsequently, during his daughter’s marriage, but Iyer forged the accounts to show profits. “As the complainant trusted Iyer, he didn’t even see the communications or email alerts from the firm,” said the police officer.

Subsequently, Iyer transferred ₹8.48 crore from Shah’s trading accounts to his personal account, claiming he would invest the money in a unique investment scheme.

“In March-April 2021, Shah learnt that Iyer had suffered from COVID-19 and his father had died. He also learnt that Iyer had left job. So, he checked his statements properly and found that his fund balance was barely ₹5.34 crore,” said the police officer.

Police said that when Shah confronted Iyer, he accepted that there was no unique investment scheme, and he had diverted the money to his own bank account. “He even returned around ₹85 lakh to the complainant after some cheques issued by him bounced. But later, he started avoiding the complainant,” said the police officer, adding that Iyer duped Shah of ₹7.63 crore between December 2020 and March 2021.

Iyer has been booked under sections 409 (criminal breach of trust by public servant, or by banker, merchant or agent), 420 (cheating), 465 (forgery) and 477A (falsification of accounts) of the Indian Penal Code.

MOFSL said in a statement, “All the transactions in the account of the client were done as his instructions and the client was being regularly sent information with respect to his account with the company. However, we understand that the client and ex-employee had some personal dealing outside our company of which we are not aware. Their personal dealing outside of MOFSL is not in our purview and hence we cannot comment on the same.”