PACL case: Sebi to auction 47 vehicles this month

Moving ahead with its efforts to recover funds worth Rs 60,000 crore in the PACL case, Sebi will auction as many as 47 vehicles owned by the company later this month.
The auction is scheduled for August 30 and would follow a similar process undertaken for various properties of the group on July 5.
PACL, which had raised money from the public in the name of agriculture and real estate businesses, was found by Sebi to have collected these funds through illegal collective investment schemes over a period of 18 years.
Pursuant to a Supreme Court order, Sebi had set up a high-level committee to ensure that refunds are made to the genuine investors after sale of attached PACL assets including vehicles.

The panel, chaired by former Chief Justice of India R M Lodha, is overseeing the process of disposing of assets to refund money to investors after verifying their genuineness.
The committee is arranging sale of vehicles registered in the name of PACL Ltd.

"Vehicles shall be sold through e-auction and MSTC will hold the process of e-auction to effect the sale of vehicles," Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) said in a public notice.
The e-auction would be conducted on August 30, while the last date of submission of pre-bid security would be August 29.
The interested person/bidder can participate in the auction process by depositing a pre-bid amount of Rs 2 lakh. By depositing the amount, the candidate would be eligible to participate to one or more vehicles.

Last December, Sebi ordered attachment of all assets of PACL and its nine promoters and directors for their failure to refund more than Rs 60,000 crore due to investors -- the biggest amount for any such case.
PACL had raised Rs 49,100 crore from nearly 5 crore investors that it needs to refund along with promised returns, interest payout and other charges, which took the total amount due to over Rs 55,000 crore, as per the Sebi order.
Besides, PACL's group firm PGFL "illegally mobilised more than Rs 5,000 crore and failed to refund the same in spite of directions of Sebi and SAT", the regulator had said while initiating the recovery proceedings.

The proceedings were initiated against PACL Ltd, as also its promoters and directors.
Recovery proceedings were launched "for their failure to refund an amount of Rs 49,100 crore with return due to investors, along with further interest and all costs, charges and expenses incurred in the recovery proceedings".
Sebi had asked them to refund the money in an order dated August 22, 2014. The defaulters were directed to wind up the schemes, and refund money to the investors within a period of three months from the date of the order.