Monday, January 3 2005 17:28 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

New Delhi: Oriental Bank of Commerce (OBC) has filed criminal complaints with the CBI against several companies for allegedly defrauding the erstwhile Global Trust Bank (GTB), which became sick and had to be merged with the Delhi-based PSU bank last year.

The five companies against whom the criminal complaint has been filed for alleged financial irregularities running into over Rs 172 crore are -- Petro Energy Products Company (Pepco), Pearl Distilleries, Shonk Technologies International, Unitel Software and Business India Publication, an official release said today (Jan 3, 2005).

Some other cases are also being examined and OBC is likely to lodge further complaints with CBI in due course.

While carrying out a due diligence exercise after the merger of the ailing private bank GTB with itself, OBC came across loan accounts where "serious financial improprieties" have been observed.

"Internal investigations have revealed that the bank (GTB) has taken high credit exposure in certain accounts even exceeding exposure norms prescribed by Reserve Bank," the release said.

"High degree imprudence in exercise of sanctioning powers have been observed where the bank appears to have abetted certain groups of borrowers to siphon off funds through banking channel," it said.

The conduct of most of the accounts reveal that deliberate attempts have been made to camouflage the positions of non-performing assets by making fresh loan sanctions to their sister or allied concerns including some of the front companies, it added.