NSEL recovers Rs 1,233-cr from 23 traders

The crisis-hit National Spot Exchange (NSEL) has claimed that it has secured recoveries worth Rs 1,233.02 crore from 23 defaulters who owe a total amount of Rs 4,515.93 crore.
"We have already secured recoveries amounting to Rs 1,233.02 crore by way of decree on admission against 5 defaulters and through injunctions from a total of 18 defaulters with outstanding of Rs 4,515.93 crore as of December 31, 2105.
"With this, we have moved another step in the right direction, and look forward to similar decrees against other defaulters," NSEL Chief Executive Prakash Chaturvedi said in a newsletter to shareholders.
The NSEL scam, estimated to be around Rs 5,600 crore, came to light after the Financial Technologies Group-owned exchange failed to pay its investors in commodity pair contracts after July 31, 2013.

The Economic Offences Wing of the Mumbai Police attached assets worth around Rs 5,000 crore of defaulting trading members, while the Enforcement Directorate attached assets worth around Rs 800 crore from defaulting trading members, Chaturvedi said.
NSEL has sought to liquidate the assets of the defaulters and deposit the proceeds in an escrow account to be operated under the instructions of a panel constituted by the Bombay High Court. It has been working at recovering the amounts due from these defaulters, he said.

NK Proteins remains the defaulter with the highest obligation of Rs 934.45 crore, out of which it has paid only Rs 35.44 crore as of December 14, 2015, he said.

Out of 24 defaulting trading members, two members with original outstanding of Rs 195.75 crore have almost cleared their dues.
NSEL said it has disbursed Rs 542.99 crore to trading brokers, to be paid to the smaller trading clients, which includes a loan from its promoter Financial Technologies.
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 unit holders directly to their bank accounts.
The Bombay HC constituted a three-member committee to oversee the recovery and payback process. Certain defaulting trading members have already come forward before the HC committee to sell their stock lying in warehouses and other assets, which the panel wanted to be auctioned, he said.

The exchange also said in the last three months, four defaulters -- Rajiv Todi of Swastic Overseas, Sampath Rao of MSR Food Processing, Nimish Patel of NK Proteins and Kamal Dewan of White Water Foods -- were arrested.