Loan fraud: CBI books Netherlands-based firm

New Delhi, April 2

The CBI has registered an FIR against Ballarpur International Holdings (BIH) BV, a Netherlands-based company, for an alleged banking scam amounting to Rs 151 crore, officials said today.

The company was promoted by Avantha International Assets BV and serves as a subsidiary of Ballarpur Industries Limited (BILT), a paper manufacturing establishment under Avantha Group promoted by Gautam Thapar that is facing a separate probe allegedly involving Yes Bank founder Rana Kapoor, they said. Thapar and the Avantha group are not named as accused in the FIR.

The BIH had no operational activity of its own and its income was solely derived from interest and dividends earned from the group of companies, the officials said quoting the FIR.

IDBI Bank had said in its complaint that on December 16, 2010, it had sanctioned a foreign currency loan of US$ 60 million to the BIH, which was later repaid by the company. The bank’s complaint became a basis for the FIR, they said. Subsequently, in September 2015, under a multiple banking arrangement, another loan worth Rs 20 million was sanctioned by the bank, with the objective of facilitating downstream investment by extending an intercompany loan to BIH, the bank alleged.