Launching a massive crackdown on the perpetrators of the IL&FS scam, the Serious Fraud Investigation Office (SFIO) has charged the erstwhile top management of the group’s financial services subsidiary IL&FS Financial Services (IFIN) with forming a “coterie” with its auditors and independent directors to defraud the company while running the business as their “personal fiefdom”.

Officials also said it is just a tip of the iceberg in this massive fraud case, involving defaults of an estimated ₹90,000 crore, as the SFIO’s first chargesheet concerns just one entity, IL&FS Financial Services Ltd (IFIN), and the probe is already under way against the parent firm — Infrastructure Leasing and Financial Services Ltd (IL&FS) — and several other subsidiaries.

The SFIO is also collecting details about all borrowings by IFIN from banks and through market instruments, as also about the role of banks and their officials and of credit rating agencies.

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