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The rise and fall of Sahara founder Subrata Roy
JAGARAN CHAKMA
With Subrata Roy’s death, a chapter of financial violations described by many as one of India’s biggest Ponzi schemes, comes to an end.
Roy -- who grabbed public and media attention in Bangladesh in 2012 after signing an investment plan here and becoming the jersey sponsor of the Bangladesh national cricket team -- passed away on Tuesday due to cardiorespiratory arrest after a long battle with illness.
Roy passed away aged 75 and with his investment plan in Bangladesh having never materialised.
According to Mint, a business publication from India, Roy was named one of India’s most influential businessmen by The India Today in 2012 after creating India’s largest conglomerate, with interests spanning finance, education, real estate, media, entertainment, and hospitality.
But the house of cards came crashing down as his companies became embroiled in a legal tussle with the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI).
In 2011, the market regulator ordered Sahara India Real Estate Corporation Ltd (SIRECL) and Sahara Housing Investment Corporation Ltd (SHICL) to refund the money raised from investors through certain bonds known as Optionally Fully Convertible Bonds (OFCDs), which were ruled to be illegal in 2010.
He faced multiple regulatory and legal battles in connection with his companies, which were accused of circumventing regulations and running Ponzi schemes, allegations his group always denied.
After months of legal battles, the Supreme Court upheld SEBI’s ruling in 2012, asking Roy’s two firms to refund the Rs 24,000 crore collected from more than three crore investors with 15 percent interest.
In 2014, the Supreme Court ordered the detention of Roy after he failed to appear before the court in connection with the battle with SEBI. Roy was later granted bail on multiple occasions.
While Sahara was engaged in that legal battle with SEBI, which would ultimately prove its undoing, Roy visited Bangladesh.
On May 23, 2012, Sahara India Pariwar signed a non-binding Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Bangladesh government with the intention of developing a satellite township fashioned “New Dhaka”.
Two days later, at a press conference in Dhaka, Roy disclosed plans to initially invest more than $100 million here on the project, adding that his company would undertake more projects soon.
To that end, he launched a company in Bangladesh named Sahara Matribhumi Unnayan Corporation Limited.
He said the conglomerate was keen to build Sahara’s first project, “New Dhaka”, around the capital with all modern amenities. Sahara sought one lakh acres of land from the government of Bangladesh to implement the project, under which they ultimately wanted to sell apartments.
They also had plans to invest outside Dhaka, with Sahara Group keen to invest in Bangladesh’s tourism sector and also sharing plans to take up a project in the Sundarbans.
The then president of the Federation of Bangladesh Chambers of Commerce and Industry, Sheikh Fazle Hossain Fahim, was named director of Sahara Matribhumi Unnayan Corporation Limited.
Yesterday, Fahim told The Daily Star that they had teamed up with Sahara India Pariwar under a memorandum of understanding in 2012.
That MoU was invalidated after three years, he said, since Sahara was accused of running a number of business scams and was sentenced to jail after returning to India.