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FMC had carried out inspection and audit in June last year, in which financial irregularities were noticed. After this, the trading was suspended at the exchange and a forensic audit was ordered.
The auditor will have to find if the funds have been siphoned. The funds will be either shareholders money as shareholders have put in Rs 100 crore and risk management money which was collected by the exchange in the form of margin for trading and funds for settlement and guarantee fund.
Business Standard's efforts to contact Ketan Sheth, CEO and original promoter of the exchange, proved futile.
FMC had earlier found a huge increase in trade volumes on the exchange in February and March. There were reports of profit and loss set off transactions taking place on the exchange. FMC had asked the exchange to take action against brokers who had indulged in this malpractice.
UCX has investors like Indian Farmers Fertiliser Cooperative and REC. These are public sector organisations and if they lose money they have the option of seeking a probe by the Central Bureau of Investigation.
However forensic report has been eagerly awaited by shareholders of the exchange as well as the regulator.
If forensic audit proves the allegations regarding siphoning of funds, then the regulator will explore possibilities of declaring responsible persons as "not fit and proper" to run the commodity exchange, said a source.
The first forensic audit in the commodity exchange space was conducted in NCDEX. Later, Grant Thornton was appointed forensic auditor for the National Spot Exchange Limited (NSEL), which defaulted about Rs 5,574 crore. Even Chokshi and Chokshi was asked to do a forensic audit of e-series contract of NSEL.
