BIZ-BMA-INVESTORS

Investors demand action against BMA Wealth, to protest outside
Sebi Kolkata office
    Kolkata, Dec 10 (PTI) Clients of suspended brokerage
firm BMA Wealth Creators Ltd, recently rechristened as BRH
Wealth Kreators, on Tuesday said they will demonstrate outside
the Sebi office here, demanding prompt action by the market
regulator to resolve their grievances.
    Clamping down on irregularities, Securities Exchange
Board of India (Sebi) had barred the stock broker which faces
an allegation of diversion of client securities worth Rs 100
crore by the promoters.
    National Stock Exchange had also suspended the
Kolkata-based broking firm in October.
    "We have decided to protest outside the Kolkata Sebi
office on Wednesday. The Karvy scam surfaced later but Sebi
resolved the investors' grievances by returning the stocks
lying with the broker's DP account, but in our case it
(regulator) is silent," a former employee of the brokerage
firm and an investor, Anirban Dasgupta told PTI.
    On Monday, 50 odd clients of the brokerage firm held a
demonstration outside the Mumbai office of Sebi, alleging
"slow course of action" by the market regulator to resolve
their grievances.
    "We estimate the magnitude of the scam will be between
Rs 300-400 crore," said Dasgupta who was engaged with the
broking firm for the last 10 years.
    Another investor and former employee of the firm,
Prasun Majumdar alleged, "Around 40,000 investors have been
affected due to the irregularities of the firm and no action
against the culprits was taken by the regulator."
    In the Karvy matter, SEBI forced depository NSDL to
transfer shares lying in the broker's account to the 82,599
rightful investors who had paid in full for the securities,
they said.
    In September, the regulator received an e-mail from
the NSE about significant mismatches and inconsistencies in
the balances reported by BMA. A shortfall of around Rs 100
crore worth of client securities was observed as compared to
the actual records.
    BMA, in its communication to the exchange, had
attributed the shortfall to software issue.
    "NSE had further observed that out of the securities
that were short, securities worth more than Rs 60 crore were
prima facie used for meeting the pay in obligation of certain
related clients indicating possible misappropriation of client
securities.
    "NSE stated that BMA has not provided any satisfactory
explanation with regard to the shortfall and BMA has
maintained the stance that the shortfall is due to software
issue," Sebi said in the order.
    In a message to its investors the broking firm had
recently said, "You all are aware of the present ongoing
precarious situation, but we want to assure each of you that
even though this is troubled time for all of us, but you
should not lose hope as we are doing everything to ensure that
your money is secured and in due course you receive your
payment."
    "We are providing full support to the forensic auditor
appointed under order passed by Sebi," it said. PTI BSM
BDC BDC

(This story has not been edited by THE WEEK and is auto-generated from PTI)