FUND FRAUD BY BROKERAGE FIRMS: Investors’ claims remain unsettled for years

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A significant number of capital market investors have been waiting for years to get back their investments which were embezzled by a number of brokerage houses in collaboration with their owners. Stock market experts said that the situation worsened the sense of investment insecurity among the investors and made them (investors) doubtful whether they would get back their money or not. The country’s capital market, which has been suffering since the 2010-11 market crash mainly due to investors’ lack of confidence, might face more hurdles to stabilisation, they said. They said that the people responsible for such fraudulent activities must be brought under book soon by brining criminal proceedings against them. They also suggested that the Bangladesh Securities and Exchange Commission strengthen its monitoring to check such fraudulence activities by brokerage firms. For the first instance, Sylhet Metro City Securities Limited in 2014 embezzled investors’ fund worth Tk 12.63 crore cialis com 4 comprimidos by selling shares of their clients without their consent. Shamim Ahmed, the then representative and chief executive officer of the brokerage house, left the country without repaying investors the money and after destroying investors’ accounts-related information. According to the BSEC data, claims made by 1,315 investors of Sylhet Metro City Securities still remain unsettled. In September this year, the Chittagong Stock Exchange suspended trading rights entitlement certificate of the brokerage house as it continued doing such fraudulent activities, CSE officials said. The brokerage house is, however, in operation at the port city bourse following a High Court order that stayed the suspension by the CSE. ‘Inconsistency in the amount of investor claims mentioned by the CSE with that of our back-office data is the main reason for the delay in repaying the investors’ money,’ Sylhet Metro City Securities director Faruque Ahmed Misbah told New Age on Friday. Trendset Securities, another pills that work like viagra CSE brokerage firm, embezzled investor funds totalling Tk 24 crore which the investors had deposited in the brokerage house for investing in the capital market in 2007-2009. Shiddiqur Rahman, a client of Trendset, told New Age that he had price of viagra not got any remedy for his claim worth Tk 6.13 crore since 2010 despite the fact that he had lodged complaints with all the parties concerned — BSEC, Central Depository Bangladesh Limited and CSE — against the embezzlement of his investments in the stock market by Trendset. The CSE has already confiscated the pharmacy canada cialis TREC viagra model of the brokerage house and sold the firm to settle investor claims, but investors are yet to get their money back. The CSE, following a BSEC letter, has recently suggested that the commission should file a case against the persons involved in the embezzlement. Aorpon Paul, a client of Raza Securities, has recently submitted a complaint to the BSEC mentioning inconsistency in his account-related information provided by the brokerage house. Two Dhaka Stock Exchange brokerage houses — Khurshid Securities and Dawn Securities — have been facing a number of complaints about embezzlement of client funds, BSEC officials said. viagra ingredients A significant number of investor complaints about fund embezzlement by a number of brokerage houses have also been pending with the BSEC. The market regulator in the July-September period received 26 complaints from investors about different fraudulent activities committed by brokerage houses. The subjects of the complaints included non-payment of investors’ fund by brokerage houses, non-payment of bonus shares and share sales by brokerage houses without investors’ consent. Presently, brokerage houses do not require having any asset of its own in dealing with client funds that means that one can handle crores of client funds with only a trading rights entitlement certificate. Such facility is one of the major causes of fraudulent activities, said a BSEC official. Asked, BSEC executive director Saifur Rahman told New Age that the commission was formulating a set of guidelines on risk-based market supervision with a view to reducing investors’ risk by imposing different limitations on brokerage houses in dealing with client funds. The guidelines will bar brokerage houses to deal with client funds beyond their capacity, he said.
Source: New Age

1 COMMENT

  1. In most of the cases specially the casual investors gave blank authorisation to the broker houses to buy and sell on their account. As long as those transactions brought profit, everything was fine and nice. In bullish 2010 or 1996 they were happy. Many of them made millions and made delighted exit.
    Coming to the remaining investors who entered at the peak times and still hold their scripts of Tk 10 purchased at 300 or even at 3000, are the worst sufferers. They now complain about the brokers that they cheated. Complains fraudulent transactions and forgot the blanket authorisation. If you investigate, broker houses will produce those signed papers. Results in dismissal of the complaints.

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