Sebi orders Rose Valley to wind up holiday scheme
A day after the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) passed a final order against the potato purchase scheme of Sumangal Industries and asked the company to refund investors money,the regulator has now come down upon Kolkata-based Rose Valley Hotels and Entertainment Limited (RVHEL). The regulator on Wednesday passed an interim order restraining the company from collecting funds under its holiday membership plan and barred it from launching new schemes. The SEBI in its order directed the Rose Valley Hotels and Entertainment Limited (RVHEL) and its directors not to collect money any more from investors including under the existing schemes. SEBI in its order has stated,the RVHEL and director are also directed not to launch any new scheme,not to dispose of any of the properties or alienate any of the assets of the schemes,not to divert any funds raised from public at large which are kept in bank accounts or in the custody of the company. Sebi in its order has established that holiday membership plan of RVHEL falls under collective investment scheme as per the Sebi Act and said that the company has engaged in fund mobilisation activity from public by floating the scheme without getting it registered with the regulator. The order shall be treated as a show cause notice. RVHEL and its directors may show cause as to why appropriate directions under the SEBI Act and CIS Regulations including directions in terms of regulation 65 and 73 of the CIS Regulation should not be taken against them, the order read. The SEBI has asked the company to submit its reply in 15 days. In June 2012,Additional Director General of Police,Bureau of Investigation,Assam,in a letter to Sebi wrote that RVHEL and Rose Valley Real Estates Constructions Limited have collectively raised Rs 1,006.70000000 from the public till February 2012. The letter also stated that RVHEL had launched the holiday membership plan in 2010. But when Sebi raised a query with the company in March 2013,RVHEL said that it was Time Share business and it does not fall under Sebis purview. Even as Sebi was establishing the fact that the scheme was a collective investment scheme,the regulator in June 2013,also received an interim order from the Government of Tripura which had restrained Rose Valley,Agartala,from mobilising any kind of monetary deposits from public under any scheme of RVHEL or of any other subsidiary within the Rose Valley Group.