Oriental Cooperative embezzled over 10 billion

Oriental Cooperative which was announced crisis-ridden twice by the Cabinet on September 23 is found to have embezzled some Rs 10.84 billion of its members.

According to the Problematic Cooperative Management Committee’s Office, Oriental Cooperative Ltd had amassed savings of over Rs 10 billion through its nine branches across the country and misappropriated the deposits.

The Cooperative was first declared problematic on November 6, 2017, after it went bankrupt. According to Office Chief Keshab Prasad Poudel, 7,646 members approached the Office demanding its facilitation to get back their deposits.

The Cooperative also faced a case at the Supreme Court for the ‘misappropriation’ of the collections. Responding to the case, the apex court on February 23, 2020, ordered the organisation to address the issue. But the implementation of the court verdict is still awaited.

Assessing the organisation is not serious about addressing the issue, the Ministry of Cooperatives on September 23, 2022, declared it ‘problematic’ the second time. Following the declaration, Cooperative former Chair Sudhir Basnet has been arrested for discussions.

During the conversation, Basnet mentioned his association with ‘Kohinoor Hill Saving and Credit Co-operative Limited’, ‘Consumer Savings and Credit Cooperative Ltd’, and the ‘Vegas Savings and Credit Cooperative Ltd’ which are already identified as ‘problematic’ by the government.

So far, the Cooperative is found to have collected the deposits by establishing its branches in Nepalgunj, Pokhara, Dang, Surkhet, Kathmandu, Biratnagar, Itahari, Bhaktapur, and Lalitpur.

Problematic Cooperative Management Committee Office had issued a 15-day notice on November 7 in the name of Board Members of the Cooperators, debtors, managers, and employees of the Cooperatives declared crisis-stricken by the government to pay the loan and interest of the liabilities to the depositors and members within 15 days.

The latest 15-day notice was published after repeated communication and correspondence with the concerned authorities in the Cooperatives were not responded to.