Defrauded clients of Tamha Securities in tears

Defrauded clients of Tamha Securities are feeling helpless as they did not get any assurance of recovering their money and shares embezzled by their broker. 

A group of victim investors, who spoke at the press conference in the Capital Market Journalists' Forum (CMJF) conference room in Paltan on Wednesday, blamed the Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE) and Bangladesh Securities and Exchange Commission (BSEC) for their lack of monitoring over Tamha's activities.

The retail investors urged the BSEC to take measures so that they get their life-long savings back.

Mojibur Rahman, a retired government employee, gave Tk13 lakh from his retirement benefits to his son for investing in stocks. The son opened his beneficiary owners (BO) account with Tamha Securities in 2009.

After the news of the company's embezzlement in late 2021, the 70-year-old man has been moving here and there seeking a remedy but is not being able to find one.

"I can't even afford any legal action because of my tight financial situation nowadays," he said.

The situation of small investors like Fakhrul Islam, Rawshon Ara, and many others, who also spoke at the conference, is nothing better.

"We are being forced to stop our children's education because of our financial crisis," they said.

Tamha Securities embezzled at least Tk64 crore of client assets as acknowledged by its Managing Director Dr Md Harunur Rashid, while a BSEC investigation suggests that the amount might be as high as Tk140 crore.

Rashid, who blames some of his employees for the embezzlement and forgery through siphoning money and shares out and misreporting the account updates over years, now promises to clear all the liabilities himself by selling off all his assets.

But it is still unclear if the value of the brokerage firm and the personal assets held by its owners is enough to pay everyone back.

Mojibur, Fakhrul, and Rawshon Ara also demanded that there be no repetition of such forgery in the brokerage industry.

The BSEC Executive Director and Spokesperson Rezaul Karim said the BSEC and stock exchanges have strengthened monitoring after last year's frauds by Tamha, Banco, and Crest.

The regulator and DSE are also working to help the victims recover their assets from their brokers, he added.

However, the outcome is not sufficient enough to assure Mojibur, Fakhrul, and Rawshon Ara as they witnessed that the victims of previous brokerage industry forgeries did not get back their money.

Stock market experts said the stock exchanges should have real-time entry access into the brokerage firms' IT systems for effective monitoring, and also, they should be made a signatory in the brokers' consolidated customer bank accounts so that no client money is siphoned.

DSE has an investor protection fund and it should be strengthened so that the bourse itself can initially clear off any such liability of any brokerage firm, and later try to recover from the responsible member, they added.