BIZ-BMA-INVESTORS-PROTEST

Investors protest against suspended brokerage firm outside
Kolkata Sebi office
    Kolkata, Dec 11 (PTI) Clients of suspended BMA Wealth
Creators Ltd on Wednesday protested against the brokerage firm
outside the Sebi office here, demanding action by the market
regulator to resolve their grievances.
    About 50-60 protesters, with festoons and banners,
shouted slogans against the broking firm and its promoters
after they were stopped from entering the L&T Chambers, which
houses the city office of Securities and Exchange Board of
India (Sebi).
    Investors, including senior citizens, blocked Camac
Street in central part of the city for about 30 minutes during
the afternoon rush hours bringing traffic to a standstill.
    Alleging that the market regulator and the government
agencies did not pay heed to their grievances, the protesters
demanded refund of their money and securities.
    "We are not allowed to meet the Sebi officials here.
The government agencies are not listening to our plea to
return our money and securities. No stringent action was taken
against the promoters who siphoned off our money," a former
employee of the brokerage firm and an investor, Anirban
Dasgupta told PTI.
    BRH Wealth Kreators was formerly known as BMA Wealth
Creators.
    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.
    The investors also alleged that the action taken by
Sebi has been "inadequate".
    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 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. PTI BSM
BDC BDC

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