Sebi to auction Rose Valley's 27 properties worth Rs 63.26 cr on Nov 25

Capital markets regulator Sebi on Wednesday said it will auction 27 properties of Rose Valley group of companies on November 25 at a reserve price of Rs 63.26 crore in a bid to recover money raised by the firm from the public through illicit schemes.

The properties to go under the hammer include flats, buildings, land parcels and hotels located in West Bengal and Bihar, the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) said in a notice.

The e-auction will be conducted on November 25 between 11 am to 1 pm. The total reserve price of these properties is pegged at Rs 63.26 crore, it added.

The markets regulator said it has engaged Quikr Realty to assist it in sale of the properties of Rose Valley while C1 India has been appointed as the e-auction service provider.

A committee would oversee sale of the assets and the money will be utilised for repaying the investors. The committee was formed following an order passed by Calcutta High Court in May 2015.

Going by the notice, bidders may participate in the e-auction online from India or outside India. Therefore, the intending purchaser will participate in the e-auction on his own behalf and no third-party intervention, like authorised agent/representative, would be permitted.

The successful bidder shall bear the charges/ fee payable as per law for conveyance of property such as applicable stamp duties/ transfer charges, registration expenses, fees, etc. for transfer of the property in his / her name. All taxes shall be borne by the purchaser.

In August this year, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) has facilitated the restitution of Rs 19.40 crore to the defrauded investors of the Rose Valley Group Ponzi scheme on the orders of a special PMLA court in Kolkata.

Prior to that in May, Sebi had auctioned 22 properties of Rose Valley worth Rs 8.6 crore.

In June 2022, Sebi had ordered attachment of bank accounts as well as shares and mutul fund holdings of Rose Valley Hotels and Entertainment Ltd and its then directors to recover investors' dues totalling more than Rs 5,000 crore.

This came after they failed to comply with Sebi directions to refund the investors money. In November 2017, the regulator had ordered Rose Valley and its then directors to refund thousands of crores to investors who had parked money in holiday membership plans of the group as it declared those schemes as illegal.

The various plans were offered by the firm with a promise of return to qualify as collective investment scheme (CIS).

Meanwhile, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in March 2023, revealed that assets worth around Rs 150 crore were attached under the anti-money laundering law as part of an investigation against the Rose Valley Group.

As per the ED, funds were collected by selling "fake and fabricated" schemes through a chain of agents located in Assam, West Bengal, Tripura, Odisha, Jharkhand and several other states.