Singapore, July 5 (TIWN) An Indian-origin banker has been sentenced to 13 years in jail in Singapore after he pleaded guilty to 20 forgery and cheating-related charges, and another 30 charges under the Computer Misuse Act for $10 million.

Another 503 similar charges were taken into consideration during sentencing of Kale Jagdish Purushottam, who had siphoned USD 10 million from accounts of Barclays Bank clients between June 2010 and January 2013, reported The Straits Times.

In an attempt to pay back his former clients, Kale, 43, forged signatures to siphon off USD 10 million from his present clients.

He then made more unauthorised transactions to recover and replace the sum but ended up with extra losses of at least US$10 million instead.

Prior to joining the British bank in February 2010, Kale worked for UBS Singapore where he was the relationship manager for a company called Red Oak, which alleged that Kale had engaged in unauthorised foreign exchange transactions using the money in its account.

Deputy Public Prosecutor Ng Jean Ting said Kale agreed to pay Red Oak USD 14 million to avoid a legal case.

However, Kale paid the firm with money from his Barclays clients bank accounts.

Ting told the court that Kale passed off the forged documents by copying and pasting the genuine signatures of authorised signatories into his own computer file.

To cover up the shortfall in the bank accounts of his three clients, he forged more documents to move money between his other client accounts.