The defunct National Spot Exchange Ltd has claimed that the Economic Offences Wing of the Mumbai Police has attached assets worth around Rs. 5,000 crore of defaulting brokers.
The spot exchange was shuttered in August 2013 following a Rs. 5,600 crore payments scam.
“We have already secured recoveries worth Rs. 1,233.02 crore by way of decrees on admission against five defaulters and through injunctions from a total of 18 defaulters with outstanding of Rs. 4,515.93 crore.”
“The EOW has attached assets worth around Rs. 5,000 crore of defaulting trading members,” NSEL Chief Executive Prakash Chaturvedi said in a letter to shareholders.
The NSEL scam came to light after the Financial Technologies Group-owned exchange failed to pay its investors in commodity pair contracts after July 2013.
Authorities had in March issued public notices to sell properties of three defaulters — Swastik Overseas Corporation and Ferrochrome of Metkore Alloys & Industries, and Red Chilly & Black Pepper, part of Shree Radhey Trading.
After a long wait, the EOW arrested Ramesh Nagpal of Shree Radhey recently, he said, adding that the MPID (Maharashtra Protection of Interest of Depositors Act) Court had recently ordered sale of ARK Imports 11 properties, which is a very significant development.
The Enforcement Directorate also attached assets worth around Rs. 800 crore of defaulting traders, Chaturvedi added.
With regards to the sale of properties of major defaulter Mohan India Group, the sessions court has appointed Knight Frank as consultant to bring in quality buyers, he said.
The sessions court order assumes significance as it would expedite liquidation of NSEL defaulters properties and pay dues of around 11,000 investors.
Being a global real-estate consultant, Knight Frank is expected to bring individual and corporate clients with high bids, he claimed.
The spot exchange, which is fighting a court battle against the government order to merge it with FTIL, claimed that out of 24 defaulting traders, two with outstanding of Rs. 195.75 crore have almost cleared their dues.
He also claimed NSEL has disbursed an amount of Rs. 542.99 crore to brokers, which includes loan from FTIL.
Earlier, NSEL had settled the e-series contracts outstanding up to 98.48 per cent by disbursing Rs. 298.52 crore to around 40,000 e-series units holders directly after the Bombay High Court had constituted a three-member committee to oversee the recovery and payback process.
On recovery progress, NSEL said it has additionally recovered Rs. 28.33 crore and is awaiting orders from the High Court committee to distribute the money to genuine trading clients.
