Rourkela police bust mule-account racket, arrest three bank staff aiding cybercrime syndicate

The accused allegedly forged documents, bypassed KYC norms and opened hundreds of mule accounts for a Rourkela-based syndicate, which sold them to cyber criminals.

At least 12 ATM cards, one hard drive, three Aadhaar cards, three passbooks of different banks, five cheque books, one laptop and four mobile phones were seized from the accused. Express

ROURKELA: Four persons including three employees of private banks were arrested by Rourkela police on charges of opening mule accounts on behalf of an organised criminal syndicate for channelising proceeds of cyber crimes and money laundering.

Police identified the accused as sales manager of IndusInd Bank Sitanshu Kumar Swain (35), cashier of Kotak Mahindra Bank Siba Sankar Pattnayak (32) and local branch head of Mahindra Finance Prabhanjan Nayak (26) who had recently quit IndusInd Bank. The fourth accused is Ajay Kumar Sha.

At least 12 ATM cards, one hard drive, three Aadhaar cards, three passbooks of different banks, five cheque books, one laptop and four mobile phones were seized from the accused.

Rourkela SP Nitesh Wadhwani on Sunday said the arrested persons were working for a syndicate based out of Rourkela. The gang was employing unemployed youths and petty criminals for opening bank accounts, obtain activated SIM cards and identity documents of unsuspecting people.

The SP said mule bank accounts were being opened in the names of unsuspecting residents of Rourkela and nearby areas by forging documents and impersonation. Bypassing the know your customer (KYC) norms, the bank employees were giving approval for opening of the accounts.

These mule accounts were either getting sold or rented for `8,000-`10,000 each to cyber criminals across India to use as pass-through accounts to receive proceeds of the online fraud. Layered to obscure the money trails, these accounts were also used to siphon off money within India and abroad.

Wadhwani said during interrogation, Sha told investigators that in the past two months, he had facilitated opening of around 800 mule bank accounts.

Investigation is underway to detect the money trails of the mule accounts and identify top-level handlers and beneficiaries along with possible involvement of other bank employees in the crime. With forensic examination of electronic devices and gadgets, the Cyber police is trying to recover chat histories, transaction details and contact lists to map the gang’s communication and payment chains, he added.