We found evidence that proves four things:
i) SBI took orders and instructions from Union finance ministry at every step to process and run Electoral Bonds for years.
ii) It responded with great speed to provide granular as well as aggregated info on the bonds to the govt.
iii) SBI insisted upon and set up with gov't nod, a full end to end audit trail to track each Electoral Bond transaction at every step. That's the only way a bank can run a bearer bond scheme.
(PS: Why this did not shock me? Cause in a previous avtaar i was an auditor.)
iv) Unlike what SBI claims, A single centralised and specialised team, the Transaction Business Unit at its corporate branch in Mumbai runs, handles, monitors and aggregates all data about EBs. It serves gov't and corporates with specialised services.
A pause: Guess why newsrooms with Rs 100+ cr revenues from govt and corporate ads won't tell you any of this? Why a non-profit newsroom such as @reporters_co has the skills and the courage to?
Because you got our back. You fund us. Consider donating.
Alright.
Exhibit Set 1: Where within 48 hours of EB's being sold and encashed by political parties, SBI collects data from all its branches and gives all info to the Union finance ministry
Notice, it can tell how many bonds of what denominations, from which branch of SBI, in physical or electronic form were sold when. And, when they were encashed by political parties and where. All in 48 hours flat.
Exhibit 2: Granular details being collected and shared by SBI, its branches and Modi gov't. To allow 'a political party' to illegally encash bonds after expiry date. Information being relayed to do so within one working day!
In this, politicians ask Delhi SBI branch for illegal encashment. Mumbai corporate office is informed with exact details of bonds. It tells finance ministry all details. Ministry mandarins say cash it. Within hours Mumbai Corp office orders Delhi to do so. It took hours.
Exhibit 3: Internal docs of finance ministry admitting that the SBI can link who bought the bonds the moment a political party brings them to any branch of SBI to cash them.
Exhibit 4: Why can SBI do so? Because it embeds a secret number on each electoral bond. Which can only be seen under UV light. This secret number is the key to linking the buyer with the seller, when the SBI wants to - for any enforcement agency, such as the ED or the FIU.
Exhibit 5: This serial number on the bond is linked to the detailed verification of the entity buying the electoral bond. See the detailed Know-Your-Customer Procedure put in place. These entries are made in SBI's banking softwares.
Exhibit 6: On the other end of the transaction, the serial number on the bond is linked to the political party that comes with the bearer electoral bonds to encash it. The bond is first authenticated thats how SBI knows its not fake and when and where it has been presented.
This ensures end-to-end audit trail of the buyer of the bond, the political party encashing it and the money moving through the banking channels. When we spoke of this two days ago, SBI took down all these documents. We have them here.
Remember, the reason for 'bearer' electoral bonds: These allowed Indian and foreign companies (and other rich individuals) to hide themselves behind a veil, move unaccounted or black money through banking channels, turn it officially white and hand it to political parties.
So A could move money through many corporate and trust fund layers in India and tax havens (lets call them B, C, D, E...) to F shell company in India. F buys the bond and gives to Party X which cashes it to claim such a clean a rupee in its account.
So when SBI says it keeps info on these bonds in separate 'silos' and 'sealed envelopes' is it telling you and I that thousands of crores of rupees were being moved for political parties by select bank employees outside the core banking system softwares! Read SBI's claim:
It is trying to tell us that since 2018 when the EBs scheme was launched
a. Statutory Concurrent Auditors
b. Statutory Tax Auditors,
c. Company Auditors filing returns
d. Executive Board's statutory Audit Committee,
e. The RBI internal inspection teams
Not once...
Not once checked on whose behalf the SBI was moving Rs 16,000+ cr to political parties through Electoral Bonds because it has been kept away in sealed envelopes, boxes and silos by select officials of the bank?
That's an even bigger scandal if that was true. It cannot be.
Every rupee that moves through the Bancs software system of SBI is traced from originator to end regardless of instrument used - cheques, gold, drafts, electronic transfers such as NEFT etc. Banks reconcile their balances every end of day through standard operating processes.
You can watch this in a video form here:
You can read it in article form in English here and in Hindi here.
We have doggedly tracked the electoral bonds scam since 2018. We have produced done two dozen investigative stories on it starting 2019. Our work was used as evidence before SC forcing it to hold the scheme unconsitutional. You can read it here.
Our investigations have also been used in the contempt petition against SBI before the Supreme Court for failing to disclose the Bonds data. The case will be heard tomorrow. You can read the petition filed by @pbhushan1 for @adrspeaks here:https://shorturl.at/givIO
The last time the Supreme Court slept for years on the evidence we brought out and let the bonds scheme run for years. We don't know what the court will do tomorrow to uphold its dignity.
We are a tiny and young newsroom. But I can promise you @reporters_co comprises courageous and skilled journalists. They keep the vigil for you. Donate to the collective to keep them going.
We @reporters_co promise to keep doing our work. Investigative and deep-dive reportage that holds the powerful accountable to you, India's citizens. In multiple languages in format. Free and without fear.
Thank you for staying with me till here.
