Popular Life directors gobble up huge money from market
Friday, 26 September 2008
Kayes M Sohel
Four directors, a shareholder and two insiders of Popular Life Insurance Company Limited, some of them family members, took hundreds of millions of taka from the market using sensitive information and creating an artificial crisis of shares, according to findings of an inquiry team of the share market regulator.
The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has imposed heavy financial penalties on them for the market manipulation.
Because of their connivance with each other violating the securities rules, the share price of the company rose to Tk 5,000 in just six months from only Tk 811, up by 500 per cent.
They all admitted their involvement in the share manipulation and begged the SEC pardon, an official of the commission said.
The SEC has fined insider Arif Ahmed Tk 10 million, shareholder Abdul Mannan, insider Begum Farzana Naz, directors Begum Farzana Jahan Ahmed and Begum Sayeka Jabin Islam Tk 0.5 million each, and director Sabbir Ahmed Tk 1.0 million.
They have been asked to pay the amounts within 15 days starting from Wednesday last.
The enquiry team was formed in March last to unearth the gross irregularities.
Sources said the share price of the company started to rise from mid-2007.
Using sensitive information about the company in violation of the securities rules, they all gobbled up the large amount of money from the market, he added. They sold or bought the shares during the lock-in period.
Under the securities rules, if any sponsor, shareholder or director holds more than 10 per cent shares of a company, it requires informing the commission of it, but they did not do so.
The sensitive information included buying plot at Aftab Nagor, a site owned by the real estate developer Eastern Housing between the period of June 2007 and March 2008 and declaration of 12 per cent cash dividend secretly.
Four directors, a shareholder and two insiders of Popular Life Insurance Company Limited, some of them family members, took hundreds of millions of taka from the market using sensitive information and creating an artificial crisis of shares, according to findings of an inquiry team of the share market regulator.
The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has imposed heavy financial penalties on them for the market manipulation.
Because of their connivance with each other violating the securities rules, the share price of the company rose to Tk 5,000 in just six months from only Tk 811, up by 500 per cent.
They all admitted their involvement in the share manipulation and begged the SEC pardon, an official of the commission said.
The SEC has fined insider Arif Ahmed Tk 10 million, shareholder Abdul Mannan, insider Begum Farzana Naz, directors Begum Farzana Jahan Ahmed and Begum Sayeka Jabin Islam Tk 0.5 million each, and director Sabbir Ahmed Tk 1.0 million.
They have been asked to pay the amounts within 15 days starting from Wednesday last.
The enquiry team was formed in March last to unearth the gross irregularities.
Sources said the share price of the company started to rise from mid-2007.
Using sensitive information about the company in violation of the securities rules, they all gobbled up the large amount of money from the market, he added. They sold or bought the shares during the lock-in period.
Under the securities rules, if any sponsor, shareholder or director holds more than 10 per cent shares of a company, it requires informing the commission of it, but they did not do so.
The sensitive information included buying plot at Aftab Nagor, a site owned by the real estate developer Eastern Housing between the period of June 2007 and March 2008 and declaration of 12 per cent cash dividend secretly.