Mumbai senior duped of ₹35 crore in a 4-year ‘guided trading’ scam
A 72-year-old Mumbai resident has alleged that he was duped of ₹35 crore in a sophisticated trading scam that stretched over four years, media reports said.
Bharat Harakchand Shah, who lives in Matunga West and runs a low-cost guest house for cancer patients in Parel, says a brokerage firm, Globe Capital Market Limited, carried out massive unauthorised trades through his and his wife’s accounts, wiping out the wealth he inherited four decades ago.
How did it begin?
Shah inherited a sizable share portfolio after his father’s death in 1984, but he and his wife never actively invested, lacking knowledge of stock markets.
That changed in 2020 when, on a friend’s recommendation, he opened Demat and trading accounts with Globe Capital and transferred the inherited shares to them.
At first, the company appeared trustworthy. Representatives regularly called him with attractive assurances that he would not have to invest additional money and his existing shares could be used safely as collateral.
Shah was even told that “personal guides” would manage his portfolio.
Two employees, Akshay Baria and Karan Siroya, were assigned to him. According to the First Information Report (FIR), this was the start of complete and unchecked control over both accounts.
The employees initially directed Shah over phone calls on what orders to place. Soon, they escalated to home visits, accessing his accounts on their laptops, and prompting him to enter OTPs or respond to emails and SMS alerts, said reports.
Shah says he believed they were helping him manage his inheritance, unaware he was enabling full and unauthorised access.
Over the next four years, extensive and risky trades were placed from the accounts without his knowledge.
Yet every year, Shah received clean “profit” statements by email, which gave him no reason to suspect wrongdoing. In reality, the official statements, only available on the company’s website, told a drastically different story.
The shock in July 2024
The fraud surfaced abruptly when Globe Capital’s Risk Management Department called Shah and told him that he and his wife had a combined debit balance of ₹35 crore. If he didn’t pay immediately, they warned, his remaining shares would be liquidated.
Stunned, Shah visited the company and learned that a mountain of unauthorised trading — including circular trades — had been carried out in his name. Trying to prevent further loss, he sold off his remaining shares and paid the debt, then shifted whatever was left to another firm.
Only later, when he downloaded the complete official trading statements, did he realise the magnitude of the deception. The “profit” statements he had been shown for years were allegedly fabricated.
Shah also discovered that the National Stock Exchange had issued multiple notices to the firm concerning his account, and the firm had replied using his name without informing him.
“For four years, the company presented us with a false picture while the actual losses kept piling up,” Shah told the media, calling the episode a deliberate, organised fraud.
He registered a case at Vanrai Police Station, accusing the firm and its employees of cheating, criminal breach of trust, and forgery.
The FIR includes charges under IPC sections 409 and 420, and the investigation has now been transferred to the Mumbai Police Economic Offences Wing.
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