Mumbai, Jan 8 (PTI) Capital markets watchdog SEBI today said it is studying whether it can make the parties involved in the Rs 300 crore Citibank fraud pay back investors that lost their entire investment to the scam.
"It is too early to comment on the entire issue as we are still probing the scam. We are studying whether we can get the money back to the investors, but we are not sure whether we can take such action now," SEBI Whole-Time Member K M Abraham told reporters on sidelines of the India Investment Conference organised by the Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) Institute and the Indian Institute of Securities Markets here.
When it was specifically pointed out that SEBI had done so in the case of the IPO scam, he said, "The Citi case is different, as this was not a direct securities market investment."
Last week, the police unearthed an estimated Rs 300 crore scam at Citibank''s Gurgaon branch, in which one of the bank''s Investment Relations Managers, Shivraj Puri, was arrested for defrauding high net-worth investors like the Hero Group through a fraudulent investment scheme.
Abraham further said, "Today SEBI is in a much more competent position to investigate such scams and along with the Reserve Bank, it is probing the entire aspects of it."
Whether SEBI will look at more stringent regulations to prevent any such occurrences in future, he said, "We are looking at the entire gamut of the issue and will take a call once we are through with the investigation."
On the new takeover code, he said a call will be taken at SEBI''s next board meeting, but refused to give a specific date for the same.
On the Jalan panel report on market intermediaries, he said this will also be decided by the board.