63 Moons Technologies said it has served legal notices to Congress leader P Chidambaram and two civil servants informing them of the company's intention to move court to seek damages worth Rs 10,000 crore in connection with the NSEL scam.
Formerly known as Financial Technologies Ltd (FTIL), 63 Moons and some of its former executives, including founder Jignesh Shah, are under the scanner of multiple probe agencies regarding the Rs 5,600 crore payment scam at the now defunct National Spot Exchange Ltd (NSEL).
Against this backdrop, 63 Moons chairman Venkat Chary said legal notices have been served to Chidambaram, former Additional Secretary at the Finance Ministry K P Krishnan and former Forward Markets Commission (FMC) Chairman Ramesh Abhishek for allegedly destroying the ecosystem and causing huge damage to the company's shareholders.
Chidambaram was finance minister when the NSEL crisis came to light in late 2013. While FMC has since been merged with markets regulator Sebi, Abhishek is presently Secretary of the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT).
Krishnan is currently the Skill Development and Entrepreneurship Secretary. Speaking to reporters here, Chary said the company has also filed a criminal complaint with the CBI against the three individuals for allegedly taking "malafide actions against 63 Moons by abusing their powers".
Chary claimed that the three individuals allegedly played a proactive role in "perpetrating the crisis, destroying the exchange ecosystem created by the FTIL in order to favour competitor National Stock Exchange (NSE) resulting in huge damages to the shareholders of 63 Moons Technologies..."
"As a result, the company has decided to file legal suits, seeking damages worth Rs 10,000 crore, against former Finance Minister P Chidambaram and others. Today, we have served the notice to them," he said, adding that suits will be filed in the Bombay High Court.
Chary alleged that Chidambaram had approved a note of Krishnan forcing other co-promoters of commodity bourse NCDEX to sell their stake to the NSE clearly revealing their mala fide interference in the competition within the exchange industry.
Further, he alleged that Abhishek was "aware of the role of brokers and traders but acted in a partisan manner only against NSEL and its parent company." Jignesh Shah, founder of erstwhile FTIL, alleged that it was not a crisis but a conspiracy to destroy the FTIL Group.
Of the Rs 5,600 crore payment, Rs 600 crore has been paid so far to genuine investors. About Rs 3,600 crore decree has to be executed, while Rs 1,000 crore in the pipeline, Shah added.
Further, Shah claimed that the Serious Fraud Investigation Office (SFIO) report on the NSEL scam had put the spotlight on the defaulting brokers, traders and the executive management of the spot exchange. He also hoped that Sebi would take action against the defaulting entities.
The investigation made so far by the EOW, CBI and ED against the NSEL and its parent company has clearly established that the entire money trail has been traced to 22 defaulting members of NSEL, Shah said.
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