£72 Million Bank Fraud - Bank Clerk Sentenced to Nine Years

HSBC Bank Clerk Jailed for Nine Years

BBC News
July 7, 2008

A bank clerk, who worked for HSBC's headquarters in Canary Wharf London, has been sentenced to nine years in jail for trying to steal almost £72 million. Jagmeet Channa of Ilford, East London, admitted to a charge of money laundering and conspiracy to defraud. He used his colleagues password ID's to steal from accounts.
Following orders from fellow conspirators, and expecting a large cut from his crime, he sent €90 million (£71,632,807) to two accounts within minutes of each other - €60 million to Morocco from a trading account and €3million to Barclays Bank in Manchester. His crime eventually came to light when he failed to leave the plundered account with a zero balance. Workers at HSBC in Malaysia alerted HQ in London when the huge debit was discovered; this led to an instant investigation. Officials reviewed security cameras and made further investigations which led them to Channa.
The two colleagues whose passwords were used in the crime were later questioned. They were both found innocent.
This crime almost succeeded. It was not a silly prank but a well thought out and planned attempt to transfer a fortune and, according to a Detective Sgt, this was believed to be largest fraudulent crime of it kind with recovery of the money being due to the prompt response of the police.

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