Three people are facing trial over an elaborate fraud scheme that allegedly tried to cheat National Australia Bank out of more than $21 million through fake bank vouchers.
Monika Singh, 42, Davendar Deo, 68, and Srinivas Naidu Chamakuri, 51, attended Sydney's Downing Centre District Court on Tuesday where a jury was chosen for the two-month-long trial.
The trio each pleaded not guilty to a slew of fraud-related charges and will fight the accusations against them.
"In terms of the crown case, it concerns allegations that the accused … engaged in various fraudulent activities," said crown prosecutor Andrew Norrie.
"The majority of the counts on the indictment concern fraudulent activities which were directed towards National Australia Bank."
The three co-accused have been charged with knowingly participating in a criminal group between September 2018 and October 2020 with the intention of defrauding NAB.
They are all on bail with Chamakuri supported in court by his daughter on Tuesday.
Singh and Chamakuri both face four counts of attempting to dishonestly obtain a financial advantage.
They are accused of trying to defraud NAB in 2019 of almost $16.9 million by depositing internal suspense account vouchers from the bank without its authority.
Deo and Singh face a similar charge for trying to cheat NAB out of a further $4.8 million in this way.
The pair also allegedly conspired with each other to defraud iFRC Bank & Trust by using a fraudulent NAB stand-by letter of credit for $US50 million.
Deo is facing a further charge of using identification information from a separate business to facilitate the fraud.
Between May 2017 and April 2018, Singh also allegedly attempted to defraud Volvo Trucks India through fraudulent bank guarantees from NAB.
After being selected, the jury of seven men and eight women heard brief directions from Judge Donna Woodburne.
Mr Norrie will begin his opening submissions on Wednesday.
