In what has come as a relief to investors who were cheated by the I Monetary Advisory (IMA) Group that went kaput in June 2019, the special court for cases registered under the Karnataka Protection of Interest of Depositors in Financial Establishments Act, 2004, approved disbursal of a second tranche of settlement for investors on Thursday (October 5).
The Competent Authority will disburse ₹69 crore, presently available with them after auctioning movable assets of IMA, to 55,126 investors in the next 20 days. This is the second tranche of settlement. In the first tranche, the Competent Authority disbursed ₹19.12 crore to 6,800 investors whose liability was less than ₹50,000 in 2021.
‘Equitable distribution’
The special court approved the proposed scheme by the Competent Authority to settle the claims of depositors from the available money. The authority has proposed an “equitable distribution” method for the disbursal of funds, categorising investors and grading them as the most affected and least affected based on the returns on their investment they got when the company was giving out monthly dividends.
The depositors have been divided into 10 categories based on how much money from the principal they have to get back. In this tranche, depositors will get between 2.7% to 17% of the principal they have been cheated of. For instance, those who have to get back only less than 10% of their principal will get 2.7% of the remaining principal now.
Those who have to get back 90-100% of their deposit principle will get 14.2% now, and those who are yet to get back 60-70% of their deposits will get the highest 17% of their pending principle now.
The special court, in its order on Thursday, said further settlement for depositors will be done as and when new funds are available, as per the same scheme now approved.
The Competent Authority has pegged the total liability of depositors in IMA at ₹1,400 crore. In these two tranches, the authority will settle a total of ₹88.12 crore collected from the auction of movable assets. The authority is expected to raise nearly ₹350-375 crore from the auction of immovable assets, presently stuck in a bureaucratic hurdle as the Directorate of Enforcement has also attached them in their case.
Arif Pasha, President of the Integrated Welfare Association for IMA investors, said the order by the court would give several families that have been robbed of their life savings and living in dire straits now a fresh lease of life.
