Tibrewala's shares now belong to govt

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has taken control of shares previously owned by Hari Shankar Tibrewala in at least 14 public companies, less than eight months after the financial crime investigation agency began its probe against the alleged kingpin of a small-cap stock market manipulation fraud.

- Varun Sood

According to a Mint review of the shareholding pattern of these companies, the ownership transfer from Tibrewala-owned entities to the Enforcement Directorate, Raipur, occurred in the last week of November.

These 14 small-cap companies, with a market cap of ₹21,880 crore, counted Tibrewala-owned Zenith Multi Trading DMCC, Ecotek General Trading LLC and Caterfield Global DMCC, as shareholders at the end of September. According to a review by Mint, all of these shares, valued at ₹590 crore at the end of 1 February, are now owned by ED.

Zenith, Ecotek and Caterfield Global are Dubai-registered companies. Tibrewala set up Zenith in June 2013, followed five years later by Ecotek in 2018 and Caterfield in 2020, according to registration filings with the Dubai Multi Commodities Centre, the UAE's free trade zone. Zenith and Ecotek list the same telephone number, as Mint reported in its edition dated 28 March, 2024.

Many entities owned by Tibrewala's associates continue to own shares in listed firms.

According to a Mint review of many small-cap stocks, ED's decision to confiscate shares is limited to Tibrewala. Suraj Chokhani, another Kolkata resident who the ED arrested in March as it referred to him as Tibrewala's Indian counterpart, owns shares in many listed companies through privately held firms.