Company official held for swindling Rs 9 crore

BANGALORE: Halasur police have arrested a director of a business development company on charges of cheating his firm Rs 9 crore.The accused has been identified as Patrick Thomas, director for Nano Excel Corporation, a business development firm functioning across Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Kerala having thousands of members. He was arrested by Halasur police Inspector Thammaiah and his team.Police have already seized his bank balance. He has allegedly purchased land in Ooty, Goa and other places which are also now being seized, police said. Thomas, during interrogation, has admitted to have swindled around `50 lakh, but the company officials are alleging that he has amassed `1.9 crore from the Bangalore branch and `8 crore from Kerala.Thomas was getting lakhs of rupees as investment from the members for various products and investments in his company. He used to deposit only a part of it and pocket the rest of the money.Within six months, he managed to swindle `9 crore and went underground when the accounts department questioned him about the variance in his deposit, Halasur police said.He also served in Kerala branch and later transferred to Bangalore a few months back , but Thomas continued to do misappropriation in his home town Kudlur in Tamil Nadu.Way of cheatingIf a member deposits `4 lakh, Thomas used to deposit `40,000 in the company’s account and pocket the rest.Later, he was sending the deposit receipt to head office after tampering the figure as `4 lakh, he said.The company which carried out audit every six months found a huge difference in the transaction by Thomas. When the officials tried to contact Thomas, he initially avoided them and later went underground following which a complaint was filed in Kerala.Based on the complaint, the Kerala police sought the help of their Karnataka counterparts to arrest Thomas.Police managed to apprehend him when he had taken shelter in his home town and recovered official documents and a car along with a huge cash. Police have arrested him under a cheating case and remanded him to judicial custody. Kerala police would seek his custody.