Four brokers of ICEX under SEBI scanner for payment irregularities

22 February 2021

The Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) will launch a special audit of four brokers over alleged irregularities conducted in commodity derivatives contracts. The four broking firms have been identified as Gogia Capital Services limited, MSB e-trade Securities, Mauzampuria Securities Broking and Findoc Commodities.

According to a source SEBI wants to do a special audit to investigate the money paid that it discovered was paid by the ICEX management to these four brokers under the Liquidity Enhancement Scheme (LES) for steel, diamond, Isabgol, rubber, pepper and PB1121. SEBI introduced LES primarily to develop greater liquidity in new and unique contracts, aware that it is a challenging task to achieve without the support of any market intervention.

In May 2020, the board of ICEX had appointed Choksi and Choksi LLP for conducting a forensic audit of ICEX. SEBI ordered the audit after a whistleblower took the lid off the irregularities in the LES. In the same month, the ICEX board sent its Managing Director (MD) and Chief Finance Officer (CFO) on compulsory leave till the investigation is over. It has not reinstated the MD till date.

In the forensic report, the auditor recommended further investigation of these brokers. It found that these brokers had incurred heavy expenses on their books during the period of market making.