The infamous Rs 11,000 crore Punjab National Bank fraud involving internationally acclaimed jeweller Nirav Modi and his associates has led to the CBI questioning several well-known names in both the banking industry and in the diamond trading and manufacturing business.
In course of the interrogations led by CBI, a new name had emerged – Vipul Ambani, the Chief Financial Officer of one of Modi’s companies. Notably, Ambani was arrested by the CBI on Tuesday, 20 February, along with four others in the PNB fraud case.
Ambani is reportedly the son of Dhirubhai Ambani’s younger brother Natubhai Ambani and has been serving as the CFO of Modi’s ‘Firestar’ since 2014, says Business Standard.
Ambani’s questioning had come close on the heels of the intensive search operations initiated by the CBI on Sunday, at the Brady road branch of PNB in Mumbai, reports PTI.
The investigating agency has revealed that it is still in the process of interrogating arrested bank officials – Gokulnath Shetty, the then Deputy Manager of the bank who retired last year, single window operator Manoj Kharat, and Hemant Bhat, the signatory of Nirav Modi's company, besides that of other PNB officials, to get to the bottom of scam that involves a series of fraudulent transactions.
Mumbai Mirror reported that the CBI had also seized Vipul Ambani’s passport, for holding the position of an executive in Modi’s Firestar and having a connection with the accused.
His Business Profile
According to Bloomberg, Ambani started his career at Reliance Industries in their Project & Industrial Engineering Group. He holds a degree in chemical engineering from the University of Massachusetts.
Bloomberg also adds that a few years later, he took on the post of Executive Assistant to the Managing Director of Reliance Industries and until 1993, had worked in close quarters with various groups.
He was made the Director at Tower Capital & Securities Pvt Ltd, a position he held until 2009, following which he joined Karrox Technologies Ltd, where he served as Director from 21 March 2009.
During his time at Tower Capital, he reportedly played an instrumental role in the development of the wholesale debt market. According to Bloomberg, he conducted a research-backed debt intermediation division, which contained the appropriate systems and processes, and has become one of the top three debt intermediaries in India today.
According to information provided by the Ministry of Corporate Affairs, he then shifted to Contango Trading & Commodity Pvt Ltd on 1 October 2012. Two years later, he joined hands with Nirav Modi and became an instrumental part of the latter’s 'Firestar’.
(With inputs from PTI, Business Standard and Bloomberg)
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