Sebi To Probe Triumph International Finance Arbitration Petition

The Securities & Exchange Board of India (Sebi) is looking into the arbitration complaint filed by the Ketan Parekh's associate broking firm Triumph International Finance (India) Ltd (TIFIL) against Sunil Taneja, a senior Indian Hotel employee, over dispute for non-payment of dues of over Rs 7 crore.

Sebi's intervention in the matter follows allegations by Taneja that the trades conducted on his behalf by TIFIL were fictitious, a Sebi official said. Sebi officials also added that the decision by the arbitration committees of Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) and National Stock Exchange (NSE) is awaited before taking any view in the matter.

Triumph International had filed arbitration proceeding at both the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) and the National Stock Exchange (NSE). The proceeding at BSE has already been completed. However, at the NSE the proceeding is yet to be completed. The other parties to the arbitration on BSE and NSE are S H Doshi and SMIFS Securities. While on the Calcutta Stock Exchange (CSE) are Rajendra Chokhani, Sanjay Khemani, and M Prasad & Co.

Between April 2000 and February 2001, Sunil Taneja and his wife had traded heavily in K-10 stocks like Zee, DSQ Software, HFCL, Global Tele-system, Satyam Computers, Indian Hotels and others.

Taneja's trading volumes with Triumph group alone was around Rs 80 crore. And his default to these brokers is around Rs 9-10 crore.

In this arbitration appeal, Taneja has said that "he was a small salaried employee having no knowledge of rules and regulation and hence not aware of legal complexities of share market trading and mechanism and hence not able to prepare reply of the case."

But according to documents submitted by the Triumph, Taneja had given delivery of shares worth over Rs 5 crore to meet his margin requirement and had received shares worth about Rs crore in his demat account maintained with Stock Holding Corporation of India Ltd.

Sunil Taneja failed to reply to a fax send by Business Standard on November 19. However, Taneja's lawyer said that the arbitration at BSE has been completed some time ago and decision is expected shortly.

The arbitration at NSE is likely to be completed shortly after which decision may be announced. Interestingly, Taneja has also challenged the impartiality and independence of the NSE's arbitration committee through a letter sent by his lawyer about two weeks ago, NSE sources said. Triumph officials declined to comment on the matter.