press trust of india
New Delhi, June 12: As it gears up to auction Sahara properties worth thousands of crores to recover further funds, market regulator Sebi’s Sahara Refund Account has swelled to Rs 11,727 crore with interest, but it has been able to refund just about Rs 55 crore so far to investors.
In the long-running Sebi-Sahara case, the Supreme Court in August 2012 had ordered the Lucknow-based conglomerate to deposit with the regulator over Rs 24,000 crore collected from nearly three crore investors through issuance of some bonds.
While the Sahara group maintains that it had directly refunded to investors nearly 95 per cent of the money, it has also deposited a portion of the amount with Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi). As the case continues, Sebi is now preparing for auction of nearly 60 land parcels of Sahara group, out of which dates have been fixed for July so far for 26 properties with a reserve price of about Rs 3,100 crore, while Sahara chief Subrata Roy is now out on parole after spending over two years in the national capital’s high-profile Tihar Jail.
Roy is undertaking an ‘aabhar yatra (thanksgiving tour)’ across India to meet his supporters, staff and investors. In the latest update on the amount deposited by Sahara and the refunds made so far, Sebi has disclosed in the fine prints of its draft annual accounts for 2015-16 that the “amount refunded to the bondholders so far is Rs 54.43 crore (including interests).”
As per the court orders, the expenses incurred by Sebi with regard to the refund process, including safe-keeping and verification of investor documents, would need to be paid for by Sahara. Sebi has been allowed to take money towards such expenses from the interest earned on the money deposited by Sahara for investor refunds.
When contacted, Sahara maintained its stance that there have been no wrongdoings on its part though the total amount deposited with Sebi would be more than Rs 14,000 crore, including interest earned on FDs.
Sebi widens share conversion scam probe
New Delhi: Expanding its probe into an alleged large-scale scam in conversion of physical shares into demat format, markets watchdog Sebi has decided to conduct a detailed forensic audit of the books of Sharepro and some other registrars and share transfer agents. Sebi suspects hundreds of individuals and market entities to be involved in the case, wherein several listed blue-chip companies are said to have been defrauded by a syndicate with the help of some registered entities, a senior official said. The modus-operandi followed by the scamsters typically involved filing of complaints about loss of physical share certificates, followed by issuance of fresh shares in demat format and even unclaimed dividend to fictitious beneficiaries by conducting a fraudulent ‘due diligence’ exercise.
