American woman accuses bank manager of Rs 2.5 cr fraud, says FIR not filed

A 75yearold American woman Elisabeth Iler who resides in Andheri with her Indian husband has been running from pillar to post to get an FIR registered against a former relationship manager of her private bank who allegedly duped her of Rs 25 crore which she had earned after selling off property in Florida in 2019 However the relationship manager brushed aside the allegations terming them baseless and falseAfter initially approaching the DN Nagar police with her complaint Iler reached out to the Economic Offences Wing EOW of the Mumbai police and officials are looking for more complainants to initiate an enquiry into the alleged financial scam as the EOW investigates financial fraud only if the money involved is R10 crore or moreIler told midday ldquoIn 2013 we bought a small condominium in Florida and in 2019 sold it for Rs 25 crore due to concerns about climate change and the increasing hurricanes and flooding occurring regularly in Florida That money represented my entire wealth after a lifetime of working and helping othersrdquoElisabeth Iler a retired professor from the US who claims to be a victim of fraud and misappropriation of funds at her Andheri residence PicsDiwakar SharmaldquoI came to India in 2009 and deposited my lifersquos savings in an American bankrsquos local branch in 2019 hoping to live peacefully in my retirement Unfortunately my trust was destroyed by the private bankrsquos former relationship manager and a woman whom he introduced to me as his wife During the pandemic from 2020 to 2022 I was stuck in New York City and began discussions with him the relationship manager who was my also wealth manager at the private bank in India on how to increase my savings through investing in India I was not benefiting from keeping the money in my US bank account and he convinced me to think about India as an investment destinationrdquo said Iler a retired professor who taught in New York CityThe allegationsAccording to Iler she was duped into buying flats worth R25 crore in Chandigarh and Noida but the property did not come up for various reasonsShe further claimed ldquoThe young and seemingly charming couple abused my trust through their fiduciary position and knowledge of my savings with lies and stealth to strip me of my savings and slowly empty my bank accounts in America They made me believe I was investing safelymdashinto my own bank accounts in India Instead they took those funds and deposited my hardearned money into their accounts It was all a wellrehearsed plan to trap and cheat merdquoldquoHe took my OTPs forged my signature and drained my accounts all while I thought he was helping me His senior supervisor watched this happen and remained silent He too may have played a role in this outrageous deception And four years later after losing my lifersquos savings after losing my dignity and peace of mind the cops at DN Nagar police station are still discussing whether my pain and suffering deserve an FIRrdquo claimed the womanldquoI am 75 years old But I still have a voice and I am not asking anyone for sympathy but for justice Please donrsquot let these names and criminal deeds vanish behind power and silence Donrsquot let this crime go unanswered In the past three years at least I lie awake every night with anxiety and loss of the joy of living and worry about facing a dark future I have never cheated anyone in my life and was so shocked at the brazen theft by people I believed and trusted as I might my own childrenrdquo said the American nationalldquoThey are young and polished this criminal couple but they have turned my life into a living hell A day does not pass when I do not feel shame for trusting them anger at their ability to destroy my lifersquos peace and their refusal to make good on the many promises they kept making Excuse after excuse has so enraged me when I think about them I have to go back to all my spiritual practices to regain any sense of balance in my life I have lost weight peace of mind and the ability to feel positive about the futurerdquo Iler said ldquoThey are cheating many others They told me that they had at least 200 foreign clients and nonresident Indians in their lsquoportfoliorsquo though I never met any of them which I now also regretrdquo she addedlsquoBetrayal by banking systemrsquoWhen contacted Ilerrsquos lawyer Himanshu Maratkar said ldquoThis case is not merely about financial fraudmdashit is a deliberate premeditated financial assault on a 75yearold woman who placed her trust in the Indian banking system and was systematically betrayed by itrdquoldquoBoth the suspects weaponised their positions and used insider access to extract OTPs forge authorisations and reroute her life savings into dubious entities under the false pretext of secure financial investmentsrdquo he saidldquoWhich legitimate banker in any lawful system takes a clientrsquos money into his or her personal or privately controlled account and calls it an investment This was not just a breach of fiduciary dutymdashit was a flagrant abuse of institutional trust and client vulnerabilityrdquo said MaratkarOther sideAfter receiving a complaint letter from Maratkar the DN Nagar police called the former relationship manager whose statement was recordedThe former relationship manager shared the statement that he had given to the DN Nagar police Its summary reads ldquoThere has been no fraud or misappropriation of any funds or securities of the woman by us She the US national is the beneficiary of various transactions in the complaint and has received shares or property against the payments made by her The complaint conveniently suppresses the benefits received by her and tries to paint an incorrect picturerdquo2009Year Elisabeth Iler came to live in India2 yrsNo of years Elisabeth Iler was stuck in the US during the pandemicCopSpeakRajendra Machidar DN Nagar police stationSenior inspector of DN Nagar police station Rajendra Machidar told midday ldquoWe have received a complaint from the advocate of the American national and the veracity of the allegations is being verifiedrdquoatOptionskeyd0ddb8ef8f1a62a8cdd22fac27fc5ea7formatiframeheight90width728params