Cobrapost undercover reporter walks in to a Hyderabad branch of HDFC Bank and leads himself to V Rao. V Rao is the Bank Assurance Manager with HDFC Bank. He informs his client about the various lucrative investment plans with the bank.
The undercover reporter makes his intent very clear that he wants to launder his stock pile of black money and so he doesn’t want to link his pan card to any transaction. Sensing his client’s reservation about his pan card, V Rao readily suggests, “bina pan card, ek lakh daal sakte hain..koi notice nahin aaega, notice kuch bhi nahin aata hai Sir” (you can put Rs 1 lakh without the pan card. You will not get any notice).
That’s it. No eyebrows raised at the declaration of black money! On the contrary, V Rao completely lives up to his designation as a Bank Assurance Officer and makes our reporter feel completely at home by suggesting he route his illegal cash into HDFC Bank’s long term investment plan called HDFC Crest. He tells his client that he can park Rs 1.5 Crore in HDFC Crest for 5 years in multiple policies. He suggests, “aapko chahiye paanch paanch ki chheh bhi sakte hain” (If you want, I can give you 6 policies of 5 lakhs each (payable every year).
And so is the red carpet spread out for black money traders at HDFC Bank. Far from reporting fraudulent or suspicious transactions to the authorities, the bankers actually entertain the illegal wealth into the bank’s coffers. V Rao offers, “agar chaahiye toh thoda sa withdraw kar sakte hain paanch saalke baad” (if you want, you can withdraw a small part of the amount after 5 years).
Such is the ease with which crores of black money is effortlessly laundered by HDFC Bank!
