DHFL shares hit lower circuit after auditor unearths another fraud of Rs 6,182 crore

Shares of Dewan Housing Finance Corporation (DHFL) hit lower circuit of 5% after its transaction auditor, Grant Thornton, has reported another fraudulent transaction of Rs 6,182 crore in the company.

The scrip declined 4.99% to Rs 17.15 in the early trade, while benchmark BSE Sensex traded 0.27% higher at 49,879.

The administrator of the company received an initial report from the professional agency appointed as the transaction auditor indicating that there are certain transactions which are “undervalued, fraudulent and preferential in nature”, DHFL said in a regulatory filing.

“As per the transaction auditor report shared with the administrator, the monetary impact of the above transactions covered under the application amounts to Rs 5,381.90 crore towards the outstanding principal, Rs 589.36 crore towards accrued interest and Rs 210.85 crore towards notional loss of interest on account of charging a lower rate of interest,” said the filing about the estimated impact on the company.

Further, the estimated amount involved in this fraud transaction places the monetary impact at around Rs 6,182.11 crore (which includes Rs 210.85 crore as a notional loss of interest), said the company.

According to the findings of Grant Thornton (GT), these transactions happened over a period of time.

The management of DHFL is currently being run under an administrator appointed under the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code after frauds were detected in the company.

The administrator later on appointed GT as the transaction auditor to conduct investigation of the affairs of the company.