Kingfisher and Subrata Roy
Kingfisher and Subrata Roy
Kingfisher and Subrata Roy
In March two sahara group companies passed a board resolution under the companies Act to raise funds for acquisition of land
, developing townships, residential apartment and shopping complexes etc. through unsecured optionally fully
convertible debentures by way of private placement. The company issued three deferent types of OFCDs (1)
Bonds 10 Ten years tenure (2) 5 years tenure and(3) Nirman bonds 4 years tenure. Sahara India Pariwar is a Lucknow-
based Indian corporation. Subrata Roy created it. Initially, his firm was focused on raising
funds from the general public by encouraging people to invest. The Sahara India Pariwar Group
of Companies was founded as his firm evolved. Mr. Subrata Roy was the group's Chairman.2
His primary commercial interests are in banking, infrastructure, and housing, as well as media
and entertainment, consumer goods, and information technology. For many years, the company
has been a big sports investor and has been the title sponsor of the Indian national cricket team.
The company has around 5,000 locations across India, with a total workforce of roughly 1.4
million people. It is a privately held firm. There are several charges of having an undisclosed
source of financing, as well as money laundering, phoney investors, and sham shares. The
Revenue Department had been keeping an eye on this firm since it had grown so large in such
a short period of time.
v Overview:
This case is about Sahara group which did a fraud with their investors. Company failed to
comply with a Supreme Court order in 2012 to repay investors in the bond scheme, which
the court has said was illegal. With this regard Delhi police arrest Sahara group owner
Subrata Roy in march 2014 and to appear in court over failure of two Sahara companies
to pay Rs 19,000 crore by way of dues to be paid to investors
The lawsuit concerns two unlisted Sahara group companies which started raising funds in2008. After the
Indian market regulator intervened, the Supreme Court told the company to repay more than $3 billion with
interest to its millions of investors. But market regulator SEBI brought contempt proceedings against Roy
and Sahara for failing to comply with the court’s order. Sahara’s investment programme includes schemes
that are similar to a typical Indian bank’s fixed or recurring deposits. The company largely sells such
schemes to small investors in towns and rural areas through their network of agents These financial
products allow investors to deposit small amounts such as 50 rupees a day for returns that some agents and
investors said are higher than what bank deposits generate. While there is no official company website
which explains Sahara’s investment schemes, agents and investors used names such as “ Benefit” and
“Minor” to identify some of the schemes. Sahara also issues a computer printed receipt with
hologramand passbooks as proof of investment, according to documents seen by this reporter. The public
notice comes after RBI received complaints from individuals that the Sahara group is mobilizing money
from the public under the generic name of Sahara Pariwar and Sahara India Pariwar. These two companies
are not registered under RBI. Only three Sahara group entities are registered with RBI -- Sahara India
Financial Corp. Ltd(SIFCL), Sahara India Corp Investment Ltd (SICIL) and Sahara India Infrastructural
Development Ltd. (SIIDL).Of these three entities, SIFCL, a residual non-banking company, has been
directed by RBI to phase out acceptance of deposits from the public. SICIL and SIIDL are not authorized to
accept deposits from the public
on its website cautioning
Ahold received the designation "Royal" from Dutch Queen Beatrix in 1987, awarded to
companies that have operated honorably for one hundred years. That same year Gerrit Jan
Heijn, Ahold executive and only brother of Albert Heijn, was kidnapped for ransom and
murdered.
Accounting crisis
The company's ambitious global expansion was halted by the announcement of accounting irregularities
at some of Ahold's subsidiaries in February 2003. The CEO, Cees vander Hoeven, and CFO, Michael
Meurs, and a number of senior management resigned as a result, and earnings over 2001 and 2002 had
to be decreased. The main accounting irregularities occurred at U.S. Foodservice (now US Foods), and,
on a smaller scale, Tops Markets, in the United States, where income related to promotional allowances
was decreased. In addition, accounting irregularities were found at the company's Argentine subsidiary
Disco, and it was determined that the financial results of certain joint ventures had been accounted for
improperly.
As a result of the announcements, the company's share price plunged by two-thirds, and its credit rating
was reduced to BB+ by Standard & Poor's.
Legal ramifications
The irregularities led to various investigations and criminal charges by both Dutch and U.S.
law enforcement authorities against Ahold and several of its former executives.
Dutch law enforcement authorities filed fraud charges against Ahold, which were settled
in September 2004, when Ahold paid a fine of approximately €8 million. Ahold's former CEO, CFO, and
the former executive in charge of its European activities were charged with fraud by the Dutch
authorities. In May 2006, a Dutch appeals court found Ahold's former CEO and CFO guilty of false
authentication of documents, and they received suspended prison sentences and unconditional
fines.
The United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) announced in October 2004, that it had
completed its investigation and reached a final settlement with Ahold.
In January 2006, Ahold announced that it had reached a settlement of US$1.1 billion (€937 million) in a
securities class action lawsuit filed against the company in the United States by shareholders and former
shareholders. Another class action lawsuit was filed against Ahold's auditors, Deloitte, but this suit was dismissed. The
suit was brought up again by shareholders in 2007, and by a different shareholder group in 2012.
The SEC filed fraud charges against four former executives of U.S. Foodservice: the company's former CFO, former
chief marketing officer, and two former purchasing executives. The purchasing executives settled the charges.The
former chief marketing officer was sentenced to 46 months in prison. The former CFO was sentenced to six months of
home detention and three years' probation.
Major Problems
Fraud ,Insider trading, the board dismissed the CEO, CFO and several other senior executives of the
Dutch food retailer after it was forced to restate revenues by US$I billion as a result of financial
improprieties
Evantual OutCome
The excutives in charge as Dutch retailer Royal Ahold plunged into one of the Europe’s worst
financial scandles were convicted of fraud in 2006 but let off with a fine and no prison time as
judges found they bore tittle criminal guilt. The court find former CEO Cees van and former CFO
Michiel Meures 225,000 euros each and gave them both nine month suspended sentences. The
verdict came more than three years after Ahold went to bankruptcy in 2003. Because the mem were
not personnel enriched by the fraud , presiding jude Frans Bauduin said comparisons between Ahold and Enron corp.