NSEL scam: Jignesh and Massey named accused in charge sheet

Financial Technologies India (FTIL) founder Jignesh Shah, Multi Commodities Exchange-Stock Exchange's (MCX-SX) Joseph Massey and former National Spot Exchange (NSEL) Chief Executive Officer Anjani Sinha are among 68 persons named as accused in the chargesheet filed by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in the NSEL scam case.

Along with the chargesheet, the probe agency has included a list of assets attached from the accused persons. These were attached during the course of investigation. The chargesheet shows how investors' money was allegedly laundered and used to purchase private properties by NSEL promoters.

"The agency has filed the chargesheet on Wednesday and has sought a trial in the case. A supplementary chargesheet could be expected," a source said.

The chargesheet, sources said, has also revealed a criminal conspiracy hatched by top and middle level officials of NSEL to misuse and pilfer funds.

ED registered a case under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act in 2013 to probe the case, along with the economic offences wing (EOW) of the Mumbai police.

NSEL's payment troubles started after it was ordered by regulator Forward Markets Commission (FMC) in July 2013 to suspend spot trade in most of its contracts, due to suspected trading violations. The exchange could not settle the outstanding trades, sparking investigations by the police and regulators to find out whether the exchange had defrauded traders by not enforcing rules requiring sufficient collateral to be set aside.

FTIL blamed NSEL executives and the trading parties for the default. There were 24 members which had defaulted dues payment to about 13,000 investors.