Harshad Mehta and Ketan Parekh

Harshad Mehta was a Gujrati broker or so-called middle-man who used to work with several banks to gain the confidence of the management. Back in 1990s, Indian banking system had several loopholes. His main task was to manipulate the stock market of Bombay Stock Exchange and earn huge profit. To understand this simply, there is something called 'Bank receipt' which is issued by a bank as an instrument of payment. Using a ready forward deal, Mehta and his associates used this tactic to lure small banks like Bank of Karad, Mumbai and the Metropolitan Co-Operative Bank. The ultimate cynosure of the whole scam is this. He got fake bank receipts issued by these small banks and received money from other banks as a loan (assuming that they were lending over government securities). When this was noticed by some banks, they were bamboozled and staggered. This mindless swindle was exposed and around 72 criminal and 600 civil offence suits were filed against him. With several banks losing on immense money, this came to be known as India's worst financial scam. [caption id="attachment_2006" align="alignnone" width="300"] Harshad Shantilal Mehta[/caption] [caption id="attachment_2009" align="alignnone" width="300"] Mehta taken into custody[/caption] Ketan Parekh was another genius manipulator and broker who inflated stock prices in the wake of booming technology industry that has hyperventilated the stock market. With a high-profile life surrounded by business magnates and politicians, KP was always entrusted by them given his extraordinary broking skills. He has also used 'BENAMI' transactions in the name of poor Mumbai dwellers to earn huge profit. Both these scams were exposed to the world by a distinguished columnist Sucheta Dalal. While Mehta was jailed and is no more, Ketan Parekh is barred from share market until 2017. [caption id="attachment_2007" align="alignnone" width="300"] Ketan Parekh, another duper[/caption]