Can duped Citi clients get money back? SEBI mulls issue

The Securities and Exchange Board of India said on Friday it is studying whether it can make the parties involved in the Rs300 crore Citibank fraud pay back investors, some of whom lost their entire investment in 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 the sidelines of an investment conference in Mumbai.

The Reserve Bank of India and SEBI are combining efforts in the investigation of the fraud, even as the net is cast wider to get to the bottom of the scam.

Last week, the police unearthed the scam at Citibank's Gurgaon branch. 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."

On 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."