Rs 38 cr swindled by Bengaluru Goldman Sachs official to pay off poker debt

Bengaluru: A senior executive of global investment firm Goldman Sachs was arrested in Bengaluru on Tuesday for allegedly swindling the firm of Rs 38 crore to overcome financial losses while playing an online game recently, the police said.

Ashwani Jhunjhunwala, the firm's vice president, has been arrested and will be produced in court, deputy commissioner of police MN Anucheth told news agency PTI.

Based on a complaint by the legal head of the company Abhishek Parsheera, a case has been filed against Ashwani Jhunjhunwala and his aide.

According to the police complaint, Ashwani Jhunjhunwala had used his three subordinates Gaurav Mishra, Abhishek Yadav and Sujith Appaiah to swindle money. He had allegedly logged on to their office systems on the pretext of training them.

"While working on their computers, he sent them away on some or the other pretext such as bringing water and logged on to their system.

Then, he transferred Rs 38 crore in two instalments to the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China illegally," the FIR said.

His accomplice Vedant, who has been terminated from the company for fraudulent activities, had allegedly connived with him to siphon off the money, the police said.

The matter came to light on September 6 during an internal audit.

According to police sources, Gaurav Mishra told company officials that Ashwani Jhunjhunwala had asked him to create a Settlement Reconciliation Service (SRS) for payment recall recently, which he did not know as he was new to the firm.

It was during that time that Ashwani Jhunjhunwala allegedly took control of his system to siphon off the money on September 4, sources said.

The company stated in its complaint that Ashwani Jhunjhunwala had lost $70,000 while playing online poker. He had also obtained loan of Rs 25 lakh and personal loans from a few others.