A 72-year-old man from Mumbai has accused Globe Capital Market Limited of causing a loss of ₹35 crore by misusing his wife’s account. This fraud continued from 2020, in which the company traded on a large scale without permission.
Trading Scam: A 72-year-old man living in Mumbai lost his life’s hard-earned money by getting trapped in a trading scam. Bharat Harkchand Shah, a resident of Matunga West, alleged that a brokerage firm, Globe Capital Markets Ltd, used his wife’s account for trading without permission. Due to this he has suffered a loss of Rs 35 crore. Shah is in deep shock after losing such a huge amount.
What is the whole matter?
Bharat Harkchand Shah, along with his wife, runs a low-rent guest house for cancer patients in Parel, Mumbai. He inherited a share portfolio after his father’s death in 1984. However, the couple had no knowledge of the stock market, so they never traded actively. This fraud started with him in 2020, when on the advice of a friend, he opened a demat and trading account for himself and his wife in Globe Capital Markets Limited. Along with this he transferred all his shares to this company.
The company said, you do not need to pay any separate money for investment.
Company representatives spoke to Shah regularly and gave him many lucrative assurances. He told Shah that he would not need any separate investment for trading. They can do safe trading by using their shares as collateral. The company representative told Shah that the company would also provide him with a “personal guide”. Having said this, two employees Akshay Baria and Karan Siroya were made in-charge of managing their portfolio. After this the company took complete control over the accounts of Shah and his wife.
The company took control of Shah’s account
The two representatives initially called daily, telling Shah which orders to place. After this, employees started coming home and sending emails from their laptops. Shah says that he entered every OTP, opened every SMS and email and responded to it. Shah was given only the information he needed to know. The company took complete control over his account. Shah was not aware that large-scale trading was being done from his account. Between March 2020 and June 2024, the annual statements they received consistently showed “profits”. With a clean statement coming every year, Shah had no reason to suspect any wrongdoing.
When and how was the fraud discovered?
The fraud came to light in July 2024 when Shah suddenly got a call from the risk management department of Globe Capital, which said, “There is a debit balance of Rs 35 crore in your and your wife’s account. You have to repay it immediately, otherwise your shares will be sold.” When Shah reached the company to inquire, he was told that huge trading had taken place in his demat account without permission. Shares worth crores were sold and many ‘circular trades’ (transactions made with the same party) left the account with huge losses.
Shah sold his remaining shares and paid Rs 35 crores.
Due to fear of losing his remaining assets, Shah was forced to sell his remaining shares. In this way he repaid the loan of ₹35 crore. Later he transferred the remaining shares to another company. When he downloaded the original trading statement from Globe’s website and compared it with the “profit” statement he received via email, he found significant differences between the two records. Shah also came to know that the company had received notices from NSE (National Stock Exchange) several times.
The company hid the truth for 4 years
Shah said, the company kept the truth hidden from me for four years, while the actual losses kept increasing. Shah has lodged an FIR at Vanrai police station, calling it “organized financial fraud”. Police have registered a case under IPC sections 409 (criminal breach of trust) and 420 (cheating) and handed over the case to the Economic Offenses Wing (EOW) of Mumbai Police.