IEG owns leading bourses such as NYSE Euronext and New York Board of Trade.
No sooner has the news come, NSEL investor forum wrote a letter to Financial Technologies India Ltd (FTIL) criticising and also directing them to repay investor's money from the deal amount.
But it simultaneously shot off another letter to the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) terming "illegal overseas remittances by FTIL in violation of FEMA" and with a request to restrain FTIL from prepaying its existing external commercial borrowings (ECBs), remitting any payments to its subsidiaries and group companies overseas through capital account transactions, not to consider any applications for remittance, direct FTIL to remit back into India and finally, to take urgent action for the FEMA violation.
Soon after the exposure of Rs 5,400-crore NSEL payout crisis and a series of multi-agency investigations, this is first big instance and deal of FTIL selling stake in any of its overseas exchange holdings.
Report say the sudden exit of FTIL from SMX could be at the behest of the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS), which is the financial services regulator of the country.
But as there is no official communication from Singapore Authority on this issue yet, so it is mere a speculation what really prompted Jignesh Shah to sell its stake and who really supported him in Singapore.
But definitely, Shah had big support from Singapore Police.
Headlines Today/Aajtak has the official communication of Singapore Police in hand, which says that Shah has not committed any crime in Singapore so it would be not right on their part to take any action in Singapore.
The complainer, who brought down Shah's empire, and on whose FIR Mumbai Police conducted searches on Shah, NSEL officials, borrowers and others, had communicated to Singapore Police in August itself.
Exclusive copy of the communication between Pankaj Saraf and Singapore Police is with Headlines Today/Aajtak which clearly shows that Singapore Police was least bothered about Shah and his criminal act against thousands of investors.
On August 30, Saraf shot an email to Commercial Affair Department, Police Cantonment Complex, Singapore Police Force, with complete details of the NSEL scam and the role played by Shah and other NSEL officials.
"We like to bring to your notice all these details so that Singapore Government should be very careful while dealing with a crook person like Jignesh Shah as he and his management team have masterminded this fraud and more than 17,000 investors have got their hard earned money stuck with NSEL whose promoter is non-other than Jignesh Shah owner of FTIL," said the letter.
On September 2, Singapore Police replied with some queries on the NSEL case, which Saraf answered with another request. "Since he (Jignesh Shah) has committed the massive fraud in India, we request that the authorities in Singapore be vigilant and should carry out audit, periodical inspection and verification of the stock dealt in Singapore Mercantile Exchange (SMX), controlled and run by Mr Shah and his associates so that such things would not be repeated and the investors will not be defrauded in your country."
The shocker came on September 9, when Marcus AG, Assistant Superintendent of Police, Maritime and Investment Fraud Branch, Commercial Affairs Department, Singapore Police Force, replied: "We'll investigate into a matter if we have reason to suspect that an offence has been committed. At this time, the available information about the company provides insufficient basis for us to suspect it has committed an offence. We will therefore not be taking further action on your complaint."
But Marcus AG also assured that "we will be happy to review the matter if you have further information".
Disheartened Saraf made his last attempt and spoke to the officer on telephone, but the reply was the same: "We're keeping a watch at the moment. He (Shah) has not committed any fraud in Singapore."
Now, it's too late. Shah has sold his 100 per cent stake to IEG for Rs 900 crore.
Here in India, Enforcement Directorate (ED) is likely to write a letter to the RBI to block the deal amount if it is remitted to India till further investigation.
ED expects the RBI to instruct all leading banks associated with FTIL and Shah to block the flow of these transactions.
But the major question here is whether Shah would remit Rs 900 crore in India for repaying his existing ECBs and other liabilities or would he strategically divert the bigger portion of the total money to other countries.
As he is quite aware that anytime from now, his immovable and movable properties (which include stakes in FTIL, his Juhu residence, vehicles and others as per EOW list, valued at at least Rs 1,000 crore) would get attached by EOW.
Courtesy:
Virendrasingh Ghunawat Mumbai, November 21, 2013 | UPDATED 15:36 IST
http://indiatoday.intoday.in/story/nsel-scam-singapore-police-turned-a-blind-eye-to-jignesh-shah-allowed-him-to-sell-stake-in-smx/1/325887.html
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