Lawyers representing a retiree, who had CA$500,000 fraudulently transferred from her account, have threatened to file a complaint against Scotiabank Limited over its protracted internal investigation into the fraud allegedly committed by its employees.
In a letter sent to the bank’s regional director legal and corporate secretary Rachel Laquis yesterday, lawyers representing Indra Narayansingh threatened to write to the Financial Ombudsman and the Inspector of Financial Institutions over the delay.
“This is to accommodate an independent, thorough and fair investigation into these matters to determine whether Scotiabank’s deafening silence and corporate intransigence have compromised the welfare, security and integrity of its customers in these matters,” attorneys Anand Ramlogan, SC, and Jared Jagroo said.
The threat comes weeks after Narayansingh, the wife of late energy executive Keith Narayansingh, filed a lawsuit against the bank alleging that it was negligent in the alleged fraud.
According to the court documents, obtained by the T&T Guardian, the alleged fraud occurred shortly after Narayansingh, a Canadian resident, opened two accounts at the bank’s branch in Price Plaza, Chaguanas, in July.
Whilst opening the accounts, Narayansingh made a request to have some of her money converted to Canadian currency and transferred to her other account with the bank’s branch in Toronto, Canada.
Between July and September, Narayansingh was forced to return to the branch on four occasions to provide the same information on the transfer. She was also told that the process was delayed due to a foreign exchange shortage and that the transfers would have to be done in five tranches due to the large amount requested.
On October 11, Narayansingh was informed that the money had been transferred to two companies in the United States—Pedomax Investment INC and Cool Runningz Towing LLC.
Narayansingh protested as she claimed to have no dealings with the companies. She also noticed that the bank’s internal transfer documents had been tampered with.
“The said forms were not signed by the claimant and her signature was forged by being cut out from a different document and stuck onto the forms, as is obvious from their being identical and the pasting having obscured the signature lines on the forms,” her statement of case stated.
Narayansingh claimed that after pointing out the error, the bank engaged in “bureaucratic stonewalling”, where staff members attempted to persuade her that she had authorised the fraudulent payments.
Since the incident, Narayansingh has since removed most of the remaining money from her accounts.
In the lawsuit, Narayansingh is claiming that the bank breached its contract with her and acted negligently by failing to implement systems to prevent such fraud and for failing to correct the error once it was raised by her.
In addition to seeking to recoup the funds, Narayansingh is seeking compensation for the mental stress and inconvenience she suffered.
Narayansingh is also seeking 9.25 per cent interest on the stolen money (prime lending rate) as she claims that she lost out on an investment opportunity in Canada due to the fraud.
The case is expected to go on trial, next year.