Internet Fraud Casebook

Chapter 34. The Solitaire Trader

SHABDA PRAKASH

Samuel Ghosh grew up in a small village outside Kolkata, the old industrial capital of India in West Bengal, on the banks of the Ganges. Ghosh prided himself on being a family man and a hard worker; after completing an MBA, Samuel was hired at Solitaire Bank and moved up the ranks to become an assistant branch manager. Sam married Geeta, a human resources consultant he met while in college, and became the proud father of a sweet baby girl. Samuel was very religious and regularly attended church. His professional aspiration was to establish his own brokerage firm. A workaholic, Sam engaged himself part-time at a small brokerage firm in the evenings after he finished his working day at Solitaire. He wanted to learn the tricks of the brokerage trade and build up the start-up capital for his dream business.

Solitaire Bank was incorporated in Mumbai, the financial capital of India, to provide premier banking services. Within five years, the bank grew from 10 branches and one regional office to 890 branches across the country with four regional centers.

Unauthorized Transfer

I was one of three internal auditors working at Solitaire Bank's Kolkata regional office. Our team was responsible for the audit and compliance functions of 234 retail branches. My fellow auditor, Rakesh, and I used to travel from one branch to another to perform auditing work. One day we were on a train to a visit a branch in Patna when — the moment the train started moving ...