ACE Securities scam: Broker offers Rs 120 million property to affected investors

Karachi Stock Exchange (KSE) has suspended the operations of ACE Securities Limited (ACE) wef April 27 after the defrauding brokerage house failed to respond to the front regulator's notice. In the notice, the KSE asked ACE for an explanation pertaining to investors' complaints received by the exchange for the first time on April 20.
Since the first complaint, KSE followed the regulatory procedure set forth in the exchange's regulations of asking the relevant broker to respond to KSE's questions regarding the complains received against it. In view of rising number of complaints, KSE sent letters to ACE Securities on April 20 and asked them to send their representatives to the exchange for hearing.
On April 21, the exchange received a letter from ACE's manager operations, who is also a five percent shareholder, requesting the exchange to allow them a week to settle claims of the clients. In the letter, he mentioned that ACE's CEO Haroon Iqbal had agreed to hand over his personal property, he claimed worth Rs 100 million and other assets (worth Rs 20 million) as well as sell the KSE's shares and TRE Certificate in the name of ACE Securities in order to settle the investors' claims.
The exchange still did not know the authenticity of this shareholder's assertions as he had no documentary proof of being an authorised representative of the brokerage house. In order to protect investor interest, on April 21, the KSE requested the Central Depository Company (CDC) to impose restrictions on ACE's Participant Account at CDC.
As the number of investor complaints rose to 82 and prima facie the claimed amount accumulated to Rs 87 million the Exchange's Chief Regulatory Officer (CRO) issued a notice to the broker on April 23 that their trading terminals would be suspended before market opening on Monday. The Board of KSE ratified this action of the CRO, as required under the exchange's regulations.