Mechanisms to seize assets of financial fraudsters should be strengthened: India at G20 anti-corruption meeting
India said at the G20 anti-corruption meeting that by strengthening mechanisms to quickly confiscate the ill-gotten wealth of financial fraudsters fleeing abroad, fraudsters will be forced to return to their home countries.
The industrialists involved in the multi-thousand crore rupee fraud, Vijay Mallya, Nirav Modi, Mehul Choksi, Nitin Jayanthilal, Chetan Kumar, Deepthi Chetan, Hitesh Kumar Narendrabhai Patel have fled India and taken shelter in various countries. The central government is working to bring them to India.
In this case, the anti-corruption task force meeting of G20 nations was held in Gurugram, Haryana on Wednesday. Union Minister of State for Personnel Jitendra Singh spoke in this meeting:
Public sector banks lost around $272 billion (Rs. 22.40 lakh crore) due to frauds committed by billionaires in India. The enforcement department has confiscated the properties worth about 180 billion dollars (Rs. 14.83 lakh crore) of those billionaires and transferred them to the banks.
Even after initiating the process of seeking information from foreign countries about the assets of financial fraudsters who fled India, the process of extraditing the fugitives to India is very complicated and time-consuming. This leads to delay in the investigation of the crime.
Mechanisms for expeditious confiscation of assets illegally accumulated by fraudsters fleeing abroad should be strengthened both at home and abroad. This will force the fraudsters to return to their home country. This will lead to speedy investigation of the crime.
The international community should act more swiftly in confiscating the assets of fraudsters through constructive exchange of information among G20 countries. Therefore, multilateral action is necessary rather than bilateral cooperation between countries to quickly deport the fraudsters to their own country and confiscate their assets.