PACL case: Sebi to auction luxury vehicles

Moving ahead with its efforts to recover investors' money in the PACL case, markets regulator Sebi has decided to put on sale three luxury vehicles owned by the company.

The move comes after the regulator had in July directed to auction 28 vehicles owned by the firm.

PACL, which had raised money from the public in the name of agriculture and real estate businesses, was found by Sebi to have collected funds worth crore of rupees through illegal collective investment schemes over a period of 18 years.

Pursuant to a Supreme Court order, Sebi had set up a high-level committee to ensure that refunds are made to the genuine investors after sale of attached PACL assets, including vehicles.

The panel, chaired by former Chief Justice of India R M Lodha, is overseeing the process of disposing of assets to refund money to investors after verifying their genuineness.

"The PACL committee has decided to auction three vehicles belonging to PACL," the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) said in a notice issued Monday.

These vehicles are Land Rover Freelander, BMW X5 and Range Rover Evoque, it added.

Sebi has prohibited the company and its directors from "disposing, transferring, alienating, or charging" in respect of these vehicles.

In December 2015, Sebi had ordered attachment of all assets of PACL and its nine promoters and directors for their failure to refund more than Rs 60,000 crore due to investors -- the biggest amount for any such case.

The order came after PACL failed to refund investor's money.

PACL had raised Rs 49,100 crore from nearly 5 crore investors that it needs to refund along with promised returns, interest payout and other charges, which took the total amount due to over Rs 60,000 crore.