"We lodged the case against Lal Bahadur Gurung, proprietor of New Tina, and Suman Paudel, a resident of Hindi Tole, Sindhupalchowk involved in the case, at Kathmandu District Court on Thursday," said Mahesh Dahal, director general of DRI. [break]
In its complaint, the department said the company has flouted the Foreign Exchange (Regulations) Act 1962 and sought action against Gurung and Paudel for deflecting foreign currency.
Their action had resulted in capital flight equivalent to Rs 1.14 billion, DRI claimed.
Both Gurung and Paudel are absconding. Arrest warrants have been issued against them.
The department has said its investigations confirmed that the company had produced fake customs declaration forms, duty payment receipts and credit receipts to siphon off the money.
"New Tina never imported the goods that it said it imported. Instead, the whole set of customs related documents it produced to transfer the money out was found to be fake," DRI said.
Based on those documents, the company managed to dodge officials and get the money swift-transferred out of the country. Gurung and Paudel also transferred the money through draft message and telegraphic transfer.
"On different dates, Gurung transferred US$ 14.8 million from the New Road branch of Himalayan Bank Limited and US$ 341,500 from the Bank of Kathmandu," DRI specified in its statement.
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