List of Indian Financial Scams in History

India has unfortunately been shaken by several financial scams over the years. Some of the biggest financial frauds in Indian history are:

• Harshad Mehta Scam (1992)– Harshad Mehta was a stockbroker from Gujarat. He manipulated the stock market and the banking system. He used to raise funds from the banks and illegally invested them in stocks on the Bombay Stock Exchange. This led to the artificial inflation of stock prices. When the scam came to light the stock market crashed by 72 percent and a bearish phase lasted for two years. The scam swindled about ₹ 250 crores.
• Ketan Parekh Scam (2001)– Ketan Parekh was a chartered accountant and stockbroker. He manipulated stock prices and thereby rigged the market. He would purchase large stakes in lesser known companies and then jack up their prices through circular trading. He dumped his stocks on a large scale thereby crashing the market. This resulted in large scale losses for large institutional investors like insurance companies. The scam led to a fraud of about ₹ 137 crores.
• Stamp Paper Scam (2003)– It is also known as the Telgi Scam because the main mastermind behind this scam was Abdul Karim Telgi. There were two parts of this scam- one was producing counterfeit stamp papers and the other was creating a shortage of stamp papers to supply the counterfeit documents. Many high ranking officials in the police and the government were deemed to be involved in this scam. The scam was valued at over ₹ 30,000 crores.
• Satyam Scandal (2009)– The founder and chairman of Satyam Computers Ramalinga Raju confessed to tampering with the company’s accounts. He, along with his associates, inflated the company’s assets and profits for several years. He manipulated the books by non-inclusion of receipts which resulted in an overall misstatement of ₹ 12,318 crores.
• Saradha Scam (2013)– The Saradha Group financial scam was an infamous scam that took place in West Bengal. It was also known as the chit-fund scam. The Saradha Group, set up by businessman Sudipto Sen, was a consortium of over 200 private companies. It was a ponzi scheme wherein funds from new investors were used to pay the earlier investors. Money was collected from the investors promising higher returns. The scam was estimated to be over ₹ 30,000 crores.
• Vijay Mallaya Kingfisher Airlines Scam (2016)– Businessman Vijay Mallaya was the owner of Kingfisher Airlines. He had taken huge loans from various banks for the operation of the airlines. But instead of paying back the loans, he chose to buy assets in Europe. The airline went bankrupt due to this financial mismanagement and defaulting on the loans. Mallaya left the country to avoid legal proceedings. He owes ₹ 9,000 crores to 17 Indian banks.
• ABG Shipyard Scam (2017)– ABG Shipyard, the flagship company of ABG Group was a key player in shipbuilding and ship repair. The scam involved creating a web of transactions to divert funds. 27 paper companies and 38 Singapore based companies were created to divert these funds which were then invested in tax havens. A total of ₹ 22,842 crores were cheated from 28 banks.
• Nirav Modi Punjab National Bank Scam (2018)- Nirav Modi, a diamond merchant and his uncle Mehul Choksi were involved in this scam. They obtained fraudulent Letters of Undertaking (LoUs) on behalf of Punjab National Bank (PNB) to secure loans from other banks. On being exposed they both fled the country. The scam had swindled PNB of over ₹ 11,000 crores.
• IL&FS Financial Scam (2018)– Infrastructure Leasing and Financial Services was a core investment company. The scam involved auditors suppressing information on bad loans and inflating profits, short term resources being used to give out loans for long term projects and not following the RBI guidelines. It defaulted on short term and long term debt obligations to a tune of ₹ 91,000 crores.
• DHFL Scam (2019)– Dewan Housing Finance Limited promoters, the Wadhawan brothers defrauded 17 banks. They defaulted on debt payments by diverting money. This was done by creating 2,60,000 fake borrowers and 87 shell companies. The 17 banks led by Union Bank of India (UBI) were cheated out of a total of ₹ 34,615 crores.

List of Financial Scams in History: A financial scam is a fraudulent scheme or practice that tricks individuals, investors, and institutions into losing their money. These are usually carried out by a single person or a company. They can take various forms and exploit the vulnerabilities of the financial system of the country.

There are several financial scams in history. some of them are bank frauds, and others are stock market frauds. In this article, we will discuss the financial scams in history. we will discuss international as well as Indian Scams.