Swiss bank UBS has been fined eight million pounds in the UK after four of its senior employees were found misusing funds of customers, including two companies of Indian industrialist Anil Ambani-led group.
The penalty of close to Rs 50 crore by UK's Financial Services Authority (FSA) comes at a time when Indian authorities are also probing alleged violation of norms in use of funds held in the UBS accounts of Reliance Energy and Reliance Natural Resources Ltd (RNRL).
The penalty, imposed after its employees were found speculating in foreign currency and commodities with money illegally taken from customers' accounts, is part of a larger probe into the past management of Indian private banking accounts at UBS, British daily Financial Times reported in London.
However, there was no suggestion of any wrongdoing by Anil Ambani or his group companies, the report added.
While the Indian government is probing into possible misuse of the bank accounts, the British financial market watchdog FSA was investigating into the conduct of some former employees at UBS, the newspaper reported.
According to the report, India's Enforcement Directorate was investigating whether some "unspecified parties" violated foreign exchange transactions by misusing UBS accounts in London held by Anil Ambani group's RNRL and Reliance Energy.
"The directorate is probing allegations that funds from overdrafts on the accounts were transferred through the accounts of a group of diamond dealers based in India and Belgium to a Mauritius fund owned by UBS, from where they were invested in Indian stocks through offshore derivatives," the report added.
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