Tamha, Banco, Crest paid 8.46% of investors’ claims

In two years, three suspended brokerage houses paid only 8.46 per cent of the total cash claimed by the duped general investors.

The operations of the houses– Banco Securities, Crest Securities and Tamha Securities—were suspended in 2020—for embezzling around Tk 177 crore of more than 10, 900 investors.

The Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE) requested clients of the brokerage houses to make claims for their money and shares by May 15 of this year.

Following the Bangladesh Securities and Exchange Commission (BSEC) and DSE, the brokerage houses settled only Tk 14.96 crore or 8.46 per cent of the 5,333 investors’ money until Tuesday, according to the DSE.

However, the brokerage houses paid all the money of link accounts of the investors who were allowed to transfer shares by opening linked accounts with any other stock brokerage firm.

Abu Isa MdNizamul Islam is yet get back his money invested in stock market through Tamha Securities. He and some other aggrieved investors came to the BSEC on Monday to register their complaints.

Speaking to The Business Post, he said, “We were puzzled by the incident as he did not give any sale orders.”

Nizamul is a retired government officer who invested around Tk 1.69 crore in the stock market through Tamha Securities in 2004, according to him.

Another investor Md NasirUddin, a businessman, invested around Tk 1.80 crore in the stock market through the brokerage firm in 2005

In the morning, he came to know that he had no shares left in the BO account he opened through Tamha Securities that misappropriated Tk 52 crore of its clients.

On December 9, 2021, the DSE suspended the trading operation of Tamha Securities on allegations of embezzling around Tk 87 crore of investors’ money.

On June 14, 2021, the stock exchange suspended operations of Banco Securities for alleged misappropriation of Tk 87 crore from the customers’ accounts.

DSE Chief Operating Officer M SaifurRahmanMazumdar told The Business Post, “We sold some assets, and dividends were deposited with DSE by three brokerages. From the fund, an average of 15 per cent was paid to some investors on their claims. A few more payments are in process.”

The DSE received claims from Banco Securities Limited’s 3,791 investors. As per DSE’s latest data, Banco settled Tk 8.24 crore claimed by 2,060 investors.

In June 2020, the owners of Crest Securities Limited went into hiding after allegedly embezzling Tk 48 crore of clients’ money.

DSE received a claim of Tk 36.52 crore from Crest Securities investors. Even now, only 4.49 per cent was paid through the bourse. All share link account-related claims have been settled, and 23 monetary claims of Tk 1.64 crore were partially settled by DSE.

BSEC spokesperson Rezaul Karim told The Business Post, “The Commission goes tough in this regard in the interests of investors.”

In February this year, the BSEC directed the DSE and Tamha Securities’ directors to liquidate the entire assets of the scam-hit brokerage firm and pay back the investors’ embezzled money.

It also directed the DSE to settle the claims of all the defrauded investors of brokerage firms - Crest, Banco, and Tamha Securities- as soon as possible.