Shares of 1200 Crest Securities clients sent to link accounts

Shares from over 1200 BO accounts of the clients of Crest Securities have so far been transferred into their link accounts, as the brokerage house remained shuttered since its owners went into hiding after allegedly embezzling funds and shares of the clients.

The Central Depository Bangladesh Limited (CDBL) has executed the transfer of the securities.

Md Shahid Ullah, the owner of Crest Securities, and his wife Nipa Sultana fled on June 23 after closing down the head office and branch offices, putting the clients in deep trouble.

However, the DB police arrested both of them from his cousin's house in an area near the border of Noakhali-Laxmipur districts on July 6.

The securities regulator also immediately went into action while the central bank froze the bank accounts of the owners of the Crest Securities and the CDBL suspended the DP account of the brokerage firm.

The Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE) found investors' shares worth Tk 820 million (as per market value) in their portfolios maintained by the Crest Securities.

The premier bourse also published advertisements requesting the clients of Crest Securities to submit relevant documents to get back their shares.

DSE managing director Kazi Sanaul Hoq said they have completed the process of transferring shares from 2,079 BO (beneficiary owner) accounts in response to the claims made by the clients.

"Of the accounts, shares from over 1200 accounts have already been transferred into the link accounts opened with other brokerage firms."

And the transfer of shares from the remaining accounts is under process, he added.

Mr. Hoq said the DSE has so far received 5,290 claims regarding shares and funds.

Of the total claims, over 2,200 claims are related to shares and over 1,000 claims are related to both shares and funds.

However, some 30 account holders have not yet submitted documents in favour of their claims.

The DSE managing director said they are working to find out a way to settle all the claims.

"In case of intricate claims, we will seek instructions from the securities regulator for solving those," Mr Hoq said, adding that they are trying to solve the issues quickly taking into account the interest of clients.

He also said it will be better for both the securities regulator and the DSE if the clients' claims are settled as early as possible.

There are also some claims regarding personal loans taken by the owners of the Crest Securities. "The DSE is not entitled to settle such claims," he said.

After the incident of embezzlement of the clients' funds and shares, the CDBL had said the Crest Securities maintained over 21,000 active BO accounts.

Asked whether the number of claims is much lower compared to the total number of BO accounts, the DSE managing director said they received the claims following the advertisement they published in the newspapers.

Contacted, a top official of the Bangladesh Securities and Exchange Commission said both the BSEC and the DSE are working to settle the claims of the Crest Securities' clients.

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