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Stock manipulator jailed for two years

Star Business Report
The special tribunal for capital market cases yesterday sentenced a man to two years in prison for illegally influencing the stockmarket through blogs and websites - a first in Bangladesh.
Justice Humayun Kabir gave the landmark verdict against Mahbub Sarwar in a case filed by Bangladesh Securities and Exchange Commission in 2010 after it unearthed his involvement in market manipulation through an investigation.
It was found that Sarwar, then 25 years old, disseminated false information on share prices of different listed companies through his blog and popular social networking sites such as Facebook and even took money from retail investors, said Hasibur Rahman, a lawyer for the BSEC.
On his blog, Sarwar, who was then working as an analyst at a private brokerage firm, promised potential clients profits of more than double the average on the Dhaka Stock Exchange, which was on a bull run at that time.
The investors were misled by the information, according to the probe.
After the regulatory probe, Rapid Action Battalion detained Sarwar in the same year and handed him over to Gulshan Police Station. Soon after, he was out on bail.
Police however arrested Sarwar on the tribunal premises yesterday after the verdict. The tribunal is located on the ninth floor of Bangladesh House Building Finance Corporation in Purana Paltan.
Around 10,000 or more had acted on the tips he gave through his Facebook page, blogs and websites, reported AFP at the time quoting police
The report said membership of his Facebook group cost up to $70 a month and he would also charge for individual tips.
He was also accused of running an unauthorised portfolio management services company - advising clients on which investments to make -- for which he charged 20 percent of the profits.
The verdict was the first from the special tribunal formed in June to quickly dispose of stockmarket-related cases.
Due to long-pending cases, listed companies sometimes cannot declare dividends or make corporate disclosures.
Whenever the securities regulator imposes fines on any listed company, investor or manipulator, they go to the High Court to challenge the order, negating its efficacy.
Some 500 cases have been filed against companies, investors and manipulators with the courts since 1996, according to data from the stockmarket regulator.
Of the cases, the much-anticipated ones are those 15 criminal cases filed against the suspected manipulators who were involved in the 1996 stockmarket scam and the two cases that were lodged for the crash in 2010-11.
After recommendations from a probe report on the stockmarket crash of 2011, the Securities and Exchange Ordinance 1969 was amended in parliament in November 2012, empowering the government to set up special tribunals to try such cases.