MUMBAI, JAN 7: Market regulator SEBI on Friday warned investors that two Sahara Group companies have been

raising funds without its approval and said it will not be able to redress any complaint in this regard. The regulator, in a public notice, said investors of Sahara India Real Estate Corporation Ltd (SIRECL) and Sahara Housing Investment Corporation Ltd (SHICL) should take investment decision at their own risk. SEBI will not be able to provide redress to any investor on any complaint in connection with these OFCDs (Optionally Fully Convertible Debentures), the notice said, pointing out that the two companies have not sought regulatory approval from SEBI for raising funds. The two Sahara group companies have been raising funds through OFCDs, which SEBI said were not issued in compliance with the applicable SEBI regulations... Furthermore, the notice added, the Red Herring Prospectus submitted to RoC (Registrar of Companies) has not been vetted by SEBI with reference to compliance to SEBI regulations. The public notice, it added, is being issued to safeguard the interest of investors. The regulator further said that it had been receiving complaints alleging that SIRECL and SHICL have been issuing OFCDs to the public for many months with varying face value and maturity period extending up to 15 years.

Supreme Court ruling

In 2012 India's Supreme Court ordered two of Sahara's units to re-pay 174 billion rupees ($3.12 billion) to [35] investors within the next three months with 15% interest. Sahara started the offering in 2001 and closed it in 2007. Subsequently, it submitted its prospectus giving details of 1.97 crore investors to the concerned Registrar of Companies (RoC). The number of investors, above 50, was not objected to by the authorities. Then in 2008, the two companies took permissions again from two different RoCs to raise funds through optionally fully convertible debentures (OFCDs), through the private placement route and raised money from about three crore investors, all of whom were claimed to be people associated with the Sahara group. In 2009, when Sahara Prime City, one of the group companies approached Sebi to go public, the regulator suddenly asked SIRECL and SHICL to refund all the OFCD money to investors. That began the battle. In April 2010, Sebi forwarded some OFCD investor complaints to RoCs in UP and Maharashtra. In its letter Sebi said that these Sahara companies were unlisted and had not filed prospectus for raising funds with it, and requested the two RoCs "for examination (of the complaints) and necessary action". Around this time, in another case relating to an unlisted entity, Sebi said that its primary mandate was over listed entities, and requested MCA to look into allegations against unlisted companies. Around the same time, backed by inputs from an executive director of Sebi, MoS finance Namo Narayan Meena told the Lok Sabha that privately placed debentures by unlisted companies, issued under the Companies Act, were under the regulatory purview of MCA and not Sebi. In this period, four former judges, V N Khare and A H Ahmadi, both former SC chief justices, S P Kurudkar, who was also in the SC and C Achutan, who was a member of SAT, gave separate opinions saying that MCA had the [36] jurisdiction over OFCDs issued by SIRECL and SHICL. Initially, government opinion favoured Sahara. In early 2011, when Salman Khurshid was the corporate affairs minister and Veerappa Moily was law minister, Additional Solicitor General Mohan Parasaran had said that unlisted companies, like Sahara

India Real Estate Corporation and Sahara Housing Investment Corporation, should be regulated by the ministry of corporate affairs and not Sebi. In July 2011, Khurshid and Moily swapped portfolios and the scenario changed: the ministry of corporate affairs now said that Sebi and it would work in tandem and [37] the market regulator had full jurisdiction over public issues. Sahara India Pariwar field workers have urged stock market regulator Sebi to adopt a rational approach while dealing with the issue of accepting [38] documents relating to three crore investors. The company says it is willing to submit the documents and it was scheduled to deposit the details with Sebi within a specified time period. The Sahara group moved the Supreme Court for review of the order to refund Rs 24,000 crore to its investors, saying that [39] the verdict casts "serious aspersions" upon the firm's business ethics without any basis.

Fraud Sahara's investment trap in Bangladesh

Securities and Exchange Board of India [SEBI] had instructed the mastermind of India's most controversial business conglomerate SAHARA GROUP to return US$ 3 billion to investors, which it collected by giving false promises as well as by violating the existing laws in India. According to information, in 2008, Sahara India Real Estate Corporation Limited, one of the enterprises of SAHARA GROUP started collecting fund from people by selling shares of Sahara Housing Investment. The name of this venture of collecting fund from the people was named as "Optionally Fully Convertible Debenture". As per Indian laws, selling shares under such programs are totally illegal. In 2010, when the illegal activities and unlawful method of collecting fund were traced, SEBI stopped the above enterprises of SAHARA GROUP from collecting fund from the innocent investors. Subara Roy Sahara, the mastermind of SAHARA GROUP went to Supreme Court challenging such decision of the Securities and Exchange Board of India, where he lost the legal battle and SEBI's decision and actions were found legal by the apex judiciary in India. But shrewd Subrata Roy Sahara did not stop here but he continued various legal efforts with the ulterior motive of salvaging his fraudulent projects. Finally the court verdicts went against Subrata Roy Sahara and his SAHARA GROUP, when on May 12, 2011 the Indian Supreme Court upheld the decision of Securities and Exchange Board of India and rejected the plea of Subrata Roy Sahara and his business enterprise. Meanwhile sensing severe legal consequences, Subrata Roy Sahara changed the name of his company from Sahara India Real Estate Corporation Limited to Sahara Community Services Corporation Limited. Financial experts in India are comparing SAHARA GROUP as fraudulent MLM companies in Bangladesh. This Indian company has collected billions of dollars, similarly as Bangladeshi MLM Company Destiny Group and its enterprises. It is also learnt that SAHARA GROUP has been running illegal banking companies similarly as that of Destiny Group's Destiny Multipurpose Cooperative Society Limited. After making such fraudulent activities in India, Sahara Groups has now stepped into Bangladesh by establishing business relations with one of the members of the "Special Family" in the country. Subrata Roy Sahara has already visited Bangladesh and sought lease of vacant lands from the government for the establishment of satellite city in Bangladesh. The newest venture of SAHARA GROUP in Bangladesh is named as Matribhumi Unnayan Corporation Limited [Motherland Development Corporation Limited], which is nothing but another scam of the notorious Subrata Roy Sahara. It is feared that in the name of establishing satellite city, Subrata Roy Sahara will be collecting billions of dollars from the Bangladeshi people and may finally disappear simply as those masterminds of Bangladeshi MLM Companies. Commenting on SAHARA GROUP's investment proposal in Bangladesh, a leading real estate company CEO in Bangladesh said, "He [Subrata Roy Sahara] did not come to Bangladesh to invest but to loot public wealth by giving them false hopes of plots or apartments in their so-called satellite city. These are

international racket of criminals and frauds and they must be stopped forthwith from befooling the innocent people."