Chennai: The Enforcement Directorate (ED) said on Friday that the Standard Chartered Bank has been fined Rs 100 crore by its Adjudicating Authority under the Foreign Exchange Management Act, 1999 (FEMA).
The Adjudicating Authority has also fined Tamilnad Mercantile Bank (TMB) Rs 17 crore and its then Chairman and Director M.G.M. Maran Rs.35 crore.
According to the ED, a probe under FEMA was taken up based on reference received from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) to investigate advance remittances received by certain entities for purchase of the shares of Tuticorin headquartered TMB through the escrow mechanism maintained with Standard Chartered Bank, Mumbai.
Following the probe, the ED had issued a showcause notice to TMB, its directors, Standard Chartered Bank and one of its officials for contravening FEMA.
In his adjudication order, the Special Director, ED, Southern Region, imposed a penalty of Rs 11.33 crore on TMB for recording in its books the transfer of 46,862 shares of the bank in the names of seven foreign entities — RST Limited (wholly owned by Ravi S. Trehan), Katra Holdings Limited (wholly owned by Ramesh Vangal), GHI I Limited (wholly owned by Rajat Gupta), Kamehameha (Mauritius) Limited, FI Investments (Mauritius) Limited, Cuna Group (Mauritius) Limited, and Swiss Re Investors (Mauritius) Limited.
