Interpol Issues Red Corner Notice Against Nirav Modi’s Sister in PNB Fraud Case

Interpol has issued a red corner (RCN) notice against Purvi Modi, a Belgian citizen and sister of absconding billionaire, celebrity jeweler Nirav Modi for her alleged role in £1.55 billion India’s Punjab National Bank (PNB) money laundering case, the officials said on Monday (10).

India’s Enforcement Directorate (ED) had earlier asked the Interpol for the RCN which acts as an international arrest warrant. ED wants her to cooperate with the ongoing investigation into the case and move the case forward, the officials added.

According to RCN, 44-year-old Purvi is a Belgian national born in Mumbai, India. She speaks English, Hindi, and Gujarati languages.

ED registered Purvi’s name in the case in March and charged her with laundering the alleged proceeds of crime generated by defrauding the PNB’s Brady House branch in Mumbai.

Interpol has earlier released the same RCN against Mihir R Bhansali, a high-level executive at Nirav Modi’s US business on allege of money laundering case.

Purvi is one of the wanted in the criminal case which pertains to cheating the PNB through fraud issuance of letters of undertakings and foreign letters of credit worth more than £1.55 bn by Nirav Modi and his relative Mehul Choksi, both managed to move away from India in January.

Meanwhile, according to the data released by PNB, it has recovered £1.21 bn from defaulters during April to August period of 2018. Earlier, it had managed to register recovery assets, cash worth £598.72 million in the entire fiscal year2017-18 and £601.39m in the last year.

The steep rise in PNB’s recovery is mainly due to the stringent measures taken by its management to avoid to be listed on the watch list of India’s central bank, Reserve Bank of India, after PNB witnessed record losses in the fiscal year 2017-18 due to the £1.55 bn alleged fraud involving Nirav Modi and Mehul Choksi.

PNB has formed a dedicated stressed asset branch in the current fiscal and asked as many as 3,000 employees to start recovery from various defaulters.