MCA orders SFIO to probe five firms for duping investors

Five companies, Basil International, Basil Express, Vamshi Chemicals, Nixcil Pharmacutical and Appeline Cosmetics will be probed by the SFIO. These companies have been raising public deposits under the garb of private placements.

These companies have not been adhering to the private placement norms, they have issued no advertisement and till March 2010 they have raised funds to the tune of Rs 1,360 crore from more than 50 people, and even the principle amount has not been returned to many investors on maturity.

Interestingly, all of these five companies belong to the same group, where most of the directors are the same and some even have the same registered address. Letters sent by the Ministry of Corporate Affairs (MCA) to these companies have returned undelivered stating that these companies do not exist on the mentioned addresses.

SFIO is now going to look into allegations of money laundering, misappropriation of funds, violating the private placement provisions of the Companies Act and other discrepancies which it may find.