A part of the funds involved in the Rs 300 crore fraud at Citibank, allegedly masterminded by employee Shivraj Puri, was pumped into the real estate sector, sources said.
Investigations into the fraud have revealed that Puri invested a part of the funds in property, police sources said, adding that the amount was small, compared to the money that went into the stock market.
Puri, the Relationships Manager with Citibank, is reported to have paid token money to real estate companies for buying properties.
The bulk of the funds, however, were invested by Puri in Nifty options — which are derivative products with the NSE benchmark index Nifty as the underlying asset — where the investor has no obligation to take delivery and needs to pay only margin money.