TIL Desk/Business/New Delhi/ A ‘black money bonhomie’ has come under the scanner involving builders, brokers and Bollywood entities as a multi-agency probe gets underway to pierce the corporate veil of hundreds of suspected shell companies.
Sebi has begun shooting off show-cause notices to 331 listed entities, suspected to have acted as ‘shell companies’ for those with illicit funds, while action has also begun against more than 100 unlisted entities that could have traded in stocks with laundered money, top regulatory and government sources said.
While the capital market regulator Sebi’s decision to restrict share trading has been reversed in case of some firms after they approached the Securities Appellate Tribunal, it has been permitted to go ahead with its probe against them and others who could have violated securities laws.
While many of these companies have gone public to deny any wrongdoing and have said they are not ‘shell companies’, a top official said a wrong perception has got created about this nomenclature and even established and well-known firms can act as ‘shell companies’ by providing a platform for money laundering and converting black money into white.
While several small brokers are already in the list of ‘suspected shell firms’, their links to bigger brokerage groups are being probed by Sebi, another official said.
