NEW DELHI, Feb 4: The Serious Fraud Investigation Office (SFIO) has presented 82 investigation reports over the last three financial years, with 40 of those reports submitted in the year 2023-24, according to the government announcement on Tuesday. During this timeframe, the agency received 26 cases assigned by the corporate affairs ministry. Union Minister of State for Corporate Affairs Harsh Malhotra informed the Rajya Sabha that there is no verified evidence indicating a rise in corporate fraud cases noted by the ministry in the past five years. This statement was in response to a query regarding an increase in the number of corporate fraud incidents over that period. According to the data provided in a written response, SFIO has delivered 82 investigation reports to the ministry during the last three fiscal years. Of those, 40 were reported in 2023-24, surpassing the 29 and 13 reports submitted in 2022-23 and 2021-22, respectively. The minister also mentioned that the SFIO did not recover any funds during the past three years. Over the last five financial years, the investigation agency has been tasked with a total of 72 cases, including 26 cases in 2019-20, 20 in 2020-21, and 14 in 2021-22. The Ministry assigned 7 and 5 cases to the SFIO in 2022-23 and 2023-24, respectively. (PTI)
