How I lost a lot of money…
Not sure whether to be in the same league as Azim Premji is a good thing or not…
Long ago when Rs. 30 lakhs could have bought me 2-3 flats in Ghatkopar I had to make a payout to my customers…and my broker defaulted. I tried all legal methods to get money out of him – H T Parekh was his name…and well I saw the futility of a young, politically unconnected guy trying to work the system. I saw the sharks, the whales, the pythons of the system…and saw how I was too frail to fight them. Got wiped out, came back, and like they say today ‘I can laugh at my mistakes’.
The membership of H T Parekh was ‘managed’ by a company called Vishwapriya (by the way it still collects money from investors, and has no problem with RBI or SEBI). Of course the whole thing was done by a big mirrors and smoke set up, and well technically I do not know which company was the name under which the card was being managed.
What is common to me and Azim Premji? Well we both lost money to one man’s brilliance. IIT- Madras, IIM-Ahmedabad.
Well he was banned twice by SEBI from accessing the capital markets. In 2000 one brilliant Investment banker told me ‘Cannot do business with him…he is too intelligent for me’…I did not realize this when I should have. Well, I paid the price.
I was even employed with him for a brief period of 6 months as a consultant when he was selling the business. The new buyer thought that I was brought in just as an icing to do a dog an pony show of saying …’look at my list…’
My learning:
- trust your gut, if you find a guy who avoids meeting you in the eye one day he will …s…w you.
- Trust, but verify.
- I learnt later on that I am in elite company – ask Nirmal Jain of Indiainfoline about his experience
- If a person is too brilliant (RS’s classmate tells me…we only argued who would be second, first was given)
- What he did to his benefactor’s family when he parted ways with them is not well documented, but it is dirty
- R Sriram could have done a better article by adding something new.
- Whether it is me, Nirmal Jain or Azim Premji – somewhere we get dazzled – like Sita we believed in the Golden deer
Well I have no clue what is true. Who is this man?
R Subramanian of Subhiksha Trading Services. He was managing H T Parekh’s BSE membership…
R Sriram has done an article about him in ET. Here is the link…
SAM
Subra,
Read the article today, but nothing new in it. I would love to read an article on Subiksha in Moneylife! Some skeletons are are surely rattling to come out 🙂
subra
no SAM no more skeletons…money siphoned off, gone. Azim Premji cheated by IVen and RS. Iven cheated by RS. nothing new.
AG
I Venures knew they the (poor) quality of the asset when they sold to Premji. The big question that remains unanswered is that could I Ventures pass on a lemon to Azim Premji without the knowledge and approval of Mr. Kamath?
SAM
And Now Mr. Kamath is chairman of Infosys! 😛
Muthu
The ET article contains some information which I was not aware before.
More than that it is sad to hear that you’ve to bear a huge loss because your broker refused to honour his commitment.
In such a scenario, how you were able to fulfill obligation to your customers and start afresh and achieve financial independence you’ve today (which I assume from your writings).It would have been a very challenging situation for you.
If it is something which can be shared in public domain, you may kindly do so.
anon
Yes, I wanted to know too. How did you manage?
In retrospect, with these,as with Satyam the writing is on the wall.Maybe faint and ancient, but it is there.
Losing money hurts. I’m sorry you had to pay.
BHARAT SHAH
what is name! this h.t. parekh and h.t.parekh of hdfc!
arvind
trust your gut, if you find a guy who avoids meeting you in the eye one day he will …s…w you. – See more at: http://www.subramoney.com/2011/08/how-i-lost-a-lot-of-money/#sthash.Jj3PsVHJ.dpuf
SOO TRUE IN LIFE.