New Delhi. A very shocking news is coming out from the world of Indian stock market and gold trading. The country’s leading Indian company ‘Rajesh Exports Limited’, which owns the world’s largest gold refinery ‘Valcambi SA’, is embroiled in a big financial scam. The revelations made in the initial investigation by market regulator SEBI have shaken the entire corporate world. According to the investigation, the company had presented false and fake figures of its earnings, after which SEBI has taken a tough stand and taken a big step.

Market regulator SEBI has completely banned Rajesh Mehta, Chairman and Managing Director (CMD) of Rajesh Exports, from doing any kind of trading in the shares of the company till further orders. In this interim order, SEBI has given strict instructions to the company to cooperate fully with the investigating officers and forensic auditors, so that the accounts and books of accounts of the company can be unraveled. SEBI’s preliminary investigation has revealed that Rajesh Exports had made huge manipulations in its accounts during the last several years starting from the financial year 2021. SEBI suspects that through this fraud the company was defrauding innocent investors for years.

Earning figures were also exaggerated

Investigation has revealed that the company had grossly exaggerated the earnings figures from its sister companies operating abroad. On the basis of this fake statistics, the company presented its financial position in the market as very strong and excellent. When SEBI and forensic auditors asked for concrete evidence and information about this earning, the company first created hurdles in the investigation and did not cooperate. According to SEBI order, Rajesh Exports had shown 97 to 99 percent of the company’s revenue as completely fake and inflated.

Misleading figure of Rs 15.2 lakh crore presented

SEBI has clearly said in its order that the company presented to the world wrong, fake and misleading figures of Rs 15.2 lakh crore in the name of its subsidiary companies between the financial year 2021 and the financial year 2025. This astonishing figure represented 99.8% of its total revenue. The company’s only objective behind committing this huge fraud was to show its financial health very strong in front of investors and the stock market. The biggest turning point in this entire matter came when the investigation team exposed the huge claims of investment made by the company.

Acted to deceive and mislead investors

A big announcement was made by Rajesh Exports in the financial year 2023 that it has made a huge investment of Rs 1,035 crore in gold mines in Africa. But when SEBI investigated it in depth, it was found that there was no mention of this investment neither in the official statements of Rajesh Exports nor in the accounts of any of its associate companies. SEBI’s investigation made it abundantly clear that the company had deliberately defrauded and misled investors by showing a false picture of its trade receivables and payables.

Along with imposing strict restrictions on Rajesh Mehta, SEBI has also sent a copy of this order to the National Financial Reporting Authority (NFRA). Under this, preparations are now being made to take the strictest legal action against the statutory auditor of the company as per the rules.

After all, what work does Rajesh Exports do?

Let us tell you that Rajesh Exports is counted among the largest gold refining and retailing companies in the world. This company does all the work in the gold business itself, from mining to running retail outlets. The company works to purify gold on a large scale through its famous refinery ‘Valcambi’ located in Switzerland. Apart from this, it manufactures gold jewelery and also exports it on a large scale to many countries of the world including India. Talking about the domestic Indian market, Rajesh Exports has retail stores under the name of ‘Shubh Jewellers’, most of whose grand stores are spread in South India.