Banking News – The Government Attorney’s Office, Kathmandu, has filed a charge sheet at the Kathmandu District Court against 22 individuals in connection with the Smart Telecom scam case, claiming a total of Rs. 96.12 billion in damages from the defendants.

The defendants include Smart Telecom directors Sarvesh Joshi and Narendra Ulak, Transgate Tech director Palina Shrestha, and Nepal Investment Mega Bank Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Jyoti Prakash Pandey, among others.

The charge sheet also claims that a significant difference was found between the share price shown in Ncell’s offshore transaction in 2023 and the price previously established in Nepal, raising serious questions about the actual valuation of the transaction and the resulting revenue implications.

According to the charge sheet, the share price had been fixed at Rs. 124,100 per share in 2019, with records showing that the shares were also traded at the same price in the OTC market. However, the 2023 offshore transaction reportedly showed the price at US$62.5 per share, equivalent to approximately Rs. 8,250.

The charge sheet claims that the difference in valuation resulted in a transaction value gap of approximately Rs. 87.0264 billion.

These are the 22 defendants

The defendants in the case include Sarvesh Joshi, Narendra Ulak, Palina Shrestha, CEO Jyoti Prakash Pandey, former manager of the bank’s Kalimati branch Bhaskar Narsingh Joshi, bank chairman Prithvi Bahadur Pandey, bank board director Prajanya Raj Bhandari, Kavi Kumar Tibrewala, Dipankar Shakya Udai, Shalikram Belbase, Shobha Shrestha, Khumnath Adhikari of Professional Business Network Pvt. Ltd., former Smart Telecom director Satish Lal Acharya, former Square Network director Satish Lal Acharya, Sachin Lal Acharya, Dr. Shridhar Ripukta Hans Wijesuriya, Abduzawar Kayumov, Thandalama Viravalli Thirumalachari, Amali Nanayakkara, Bhawana Singh Shrestha Acharya, Bhupendra Bhandari, Donald James Ray, and Neo Hui Yulai.