Monday July 7, 10:18 PM
Bank Clerk Jailed For £72m Scam
By Sky News
A bank clerk who tried to steal nearly £72m from HSBC has been jailed for nine years. Jagmeet Channa, 25, who worked at the Canary Wharf headquarters of Britain's leading bank, hijacked colleagues' identities to plunder its
coffers in "one of the biggest frauds of its kind".
Hoping the looming weekend would help hide his betrayal, he followed the orders of fellow conspirators who had promised him a "cut", by first sending 60 million euros (£47,970,227) from one of its trading accounts to Morocco.
Minutes later he wired 30 million euros (£23,984,113) to a branch of Barclays in Manchester.
But insider Channa, who was expecting a substantial cut for his "audacious and outrageous" crime, forgot the account he raided had to show a zero balance at the end of each day.
The massive debit was first discovered by HSBC workers in Malaysia on a Sunday.
They alerted their colleagues in London and an investigation was immediately launched.
Unfortunately, electronic footsteps on the bank's mainframe initially pointed the finger of suspicion at Channa's two colleagues, whose passwords had been used to carry out and approve the transactions.
They were arrested, questioned and - after "convincing" denials – were declared innocent.
Shortly afterwards meantime security camera checks and other inquiries identified Channa.
But by then both Barclays and the bank in Casablanca had been contacted, the account frozen and the stolen money returned.
Police said his "staggering" dishonesty amounted to one of the largest frauds of its kind.
Channa, of Church Road, Ilford, Essex, who had only been working at the bank for a year, admitted one count of conspiracy to defraud between April 1 and 18 this year and one of money laundering by sending the larger sum to the Western Saharan state.
A third count, alleging abuse of a position of trust, was "left on the file" and not proceeded with.
Click here for more breaking stories from Sky News
|
Send Article by Email
