Wanted Bulletin issued for Bel Air man in multi-million Scotia Bank Fraud; Bank employee and GRA staffer suspected of collusion

"Anyone with information that may lead to the arrest of Vishaul Moonilal, is asked to contact the police on telephone numbers 225-6411, 227-2128, 226-1389, 226-7065, 226-1389, 226-7476, 227-2610, 227-7065, 911 or the nearest police station", the bulletin asked.

Wanted Bulletin issued for Bel Air man in multi-million Scotia Bank Fraud; Bank employee and GRA staffer suspected of collusion

The Guyana Police Force on Friday issued a wanted bulletin for a 33-year-old Bel Air man as it widened a multi-million dollar fraud probe at Scotia Bank, Carmichael Street.

The wanted man has been identified as Vishaul Moonilal. His last known addresses were given as 44 Bel Air Park, Georgetown and 44 Houston, East Bank Demerara.

According to the Guyana Police Force, the fraud occurred in July, 2016 at the Carmichael Street branch of Scotia Bank.  

“Anyone with information that may lead to the arrest of Vishaul Moonilal, is asked to contact the police on telephone numbers 225-6411, 227-2128, 226-1389, 226-7065, 226-1389, 226-7476, 227-2610, 227-7065, 911 or the nearest police station”, the bulletin asked. 

A senior Police officer told News Source that a former employee of Scotia Bank, who was fired after the fraud was uncovered, is also at the centre of the investigations. Additionally, investigators are also looking at a staffer of the Guyana Revenue Authority.

The 21-year-old former bank employee reportedly worked along with Moonilal and a GRA staffer and allegedly defrauded the bank of millions of dollars.

The fraud was an elaborate one, according to the Police source.

The GRA employee would issue vehicle registration certificates in the name of Moonilal and other persons for vehicles that they did not own and in some cases, never existed.

The bank employee would allegedly then use the registration certificates to approve millions of dollars in loans.

While in the records, the bank appeared to be holding on to the vehicles as collateral for the loans, in reality, there was nothing, since the vehicles were either non-existent or did not belong to the persons in whose names they were registered.

“What would happen is that the GRA certificates would be issued and the banker would accept them, knowing them to be false and issue loans in the names of the persons who were on the certificates. The money would be approved then it appeared as though, it would be split between the banker, Moonilall, the GRA staffer and whoever else”, the source explained.

The bank reportedly carried out its own probe after its credit department uncovered the fraud.

The department hit a brick wall when it attempted to reach out to the persons who would have been issued the loans and could not locate them or the vehicles that the registration would have been issued for.

The young loan officer was fired and the bank passed the information over to the Police which has been probing the case over the past few months.

The investigations are ongoing.

 

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