72 year old Bharatbhai lost Rs 35 crore in trading fraud: Broker kept telling 18% profit by sending fake statements for 4 years

72 year old Bharatbhai Shah’s father had bought a lot of good shares in the 70-80s. Bharatbhai doesn’t even know the ABC of market properly. Just the dividend coming every year, that was enough.

It is about 2020. Met an old friend. He said, ‘Brother, your shares are lying like this. There is a very good brokerage firm – Globe Capital. Keep your shares with them (collateral), they will do the trading. You don’t have to do anything, just sit and you will get 15-18% profit every year.

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On this, Shah opened accounts with Globe Capital in the name of himself and his wife and transferred all the old shares. People associated with the firm said that there will be no extra investment, personal guides will be available who will manage the portfolio.

After this, two boys come from the company – Akshay Baria and Karan Siroya. He was made Shah’s ‘guide’. He said, ‘Uncle, don’t take any tension at all. We will manage your portfolio. Just let us know whenever OTP comes on your phone. We will put the trade in. Initially they were asked to place orders over phone. Then started coming home. Speak-

The employees sent emails from their laptops and got a response to every OTP, SMS and email from Shah. Gradually, full control was gained over the account. Big trades continued to take place from March 2020 to June 2024, but Shah only received ‘profit’ statements by email.

‘Uncle ji, this time there is a good opportunity in Adani… just tell me the OTP.’ And Bharatbhai would say OTP. Every year in December, a thick PDF would come on email. ‘Your portfolio has returned 18.4%. The total value has now reached so many crores. Uncle and aunty are happy.

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Then came that day of July 2024. The phone rang at 10 in the morning. A stern voice came from the other side – ‘Bharat Shah ji? There is a total debit balance of Rs 35 crore in the account of you and your wife. If the money is not received within 48 hours, we will sell all the remaining shares in the market. Bharatbhai lost his senses.

He said, ‘What kind of debit?’ We were being shown profits every year! The reply came from there – ‘Uncle, you guys were playing in F&O every day. Damage has been done. Now either give the money, or the shares will be gone.

Bharatbhai reached office. There it was shown that thousands of trades had taken place in the last 4 years. Some day it is Rs 5 crore, some day it is Rs 10 crore. Mostly in trade loss. Bharatbhai started crying – ‘We never even mentioned trading. OTP was given only to you people!

Then came home, opened the computer, logged in to the website of Globe Capital and the truth was revealed in the statement that was downloaded. The report that came on email was completely fake.

In the original report the account had been emptied. Bharatbhai called his sons and daughters. Then he collected Rs 35 crore by selling the remaining shares. Gave the entire money to the company and transferred the remaining shares to another broker.

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FIR on charges of unauthorized trading and fraud