Company announcement on Stock Exchange: More resignations at GlobalCapital

A company announcement on the Malta Stock Exchange website announced on Tuesday  that Arun Shankardass and Oumeshing Sookdawoor have tendered their resignation from the office of director of the company with effect from 17 April.

Mr Shankardass will also be stepping down as chairman of the Audit Committee of the company and as chairman of GlobalCapital Life Insurance Limited.

Mr Sookdawoor is also stepping from the post of director on the company’s subsidiaries, GlobalCapital Life Insurance and GlobalCapital Health Insurance Agency.

The board of directors has accepted Mr Shankardass’s and MrSookdawoor’s resignation.

These resignations follow that of the chairman Dawood Rawat.

As announced in this paper on 9 April the board of directors of GlobalCapitalhas appointed Joseph R. Aquilina as interim chairman of the company, replacing DawoodRawat who has tendered his resignation from the office of director and chairman of the company after serving on the board of directors of GlobalCapital since March 2003.

On Friday, 17 April the Malta Financial Services Authority announced that the major shareholder in ClobalCapital, BAI Co (Mtius), which is the owner of 48.45% of the issued share capital of GlobalCapital, has been put under the control of conservators by the authorities in Mauritius.

The Listing Authority has decided as a consequence, to suspend the listing and trading of the following securities of GlobalCapital.: [i] MT000017O1O1 GlobalCapital – Ordinary Shares; and [ii] MT0000073412 – 5.6% GlobalCapital € Bonds 2014/16; until such time that it is able to make a judgement on the effect that the position of BAI CO (Mtius) will have on the operations of GlobalCapital.

The suspensions referred to above are being taken to prevent any false market being created in the securities of GlobälCapital. The suspension will be in effect for a period of 10 working days. Further action, should this be necessary, will be communicated prior to the end of the suspension period, namely 4 May.

The previously referred to company announcement stated that Joseph R. Aquilina brings a wealth of experience as a senior executive and director of several companies. He was appointed director at GlobalCapitalin 2011 and has since served uninterruptedly as a member of the board of directors of the company.

During this time in office, Mr Aquilina served as chairman and member of several company committees including the Remuneration Committee, the Investments Committee and the Risk Committee.

Mr Aquilina also serves as director on a number of the group’s regulated subsidiaries, including GlobalCapital Life Insurance Limited and GlobalCapital Health Insurance Agency Ltd.

In a separate company announcement issued on the Malta Stock Exchange, the company has also stated that the business and operations of the GlobalCapital Group are totally separate and distinct from those of any of its shareholders, including BAI Co. (Mtius) Ltd.

The company noted that the appointment of conservators of BAI does not relate to the business, operations or assets of the GlobalCapital Group.

But news service Island Crisis.net said on 17 April that DawoodRawat might soon be arrested.

The news portal said: “The owner of the British American Investment, DawoodRawat, might soon be arrested – an international arrest warrant could possibly be issued against him. A CCID team is expected to press several charges – including that of money laundering –against him in Supreme Court; he will be charged in absentia since he has been abroad since two months now.

After Nandanee Soornack, the portal said, Dawood Rawat might also have an international arrest warrant issued against him. The CCID is expected to press charges against the owner of the BAI in absentia. DawoodRawat went abroad two months ago for health reasons. Allegedly, he is currently in a capital of a European country. He will be indicted for money laundering, fraud, and embezzlement of funds.

The police believe he has diverted the investments of his clients by illegally transferring the funds to foreign countries, among other methods. The authorities are also particularly concerned about the estate properties that were acquired at the US and at the UK.

The CCID team of the Assistant Commissioner HemantJangi will thus call at the Supreme Court to seek an order from the Judge to have the authorisation to obtain a “full disclosure” of the personal bank accounts of DawoodRawat, as well as those of his partners and family members who are part of the executive committee of the subsidiary groups of the BAI.

Meanwhile, British American Investment Co., which owns Bramer, is also in deep trouble.

Mauritius’s future as on offshore financial centre is under threat after the island state’s Prime Minister AneroodJugnauth announced its central bank has uncovered evidence of a Ponzi scheme.

It has revoked the licence of listed Bramer Bank Corporation as a set towards addressing what Mr Jugnauth described as an “unprecedented financial scandal.”

The closure of the bank follows last week’s suspension of a third Mauritius-based entity of alleged Ponzi scheme operator Belvedere, which is controlled by South African CobusKellermann and his Irish national partner David Cosgrove. – Alec Hogg

Trading in shares of Bramer Banking Corp. of Mauritius was suspended after the lender’s license was revoked, its accounts transferred to another bank and the prime minister said there’s “evidence” of a Ponzi scheme.

The central bank pulled Bramer’s license “following strong evidence that BBCL is engaged in a Ponzi scheme which exceeds 25 billion rupees” ($690 million), Prime Minister AneroodJugnauth told reporters in Port Louis, the capital, on Friday. An investigation is underway into what he called an “unprecedented financial scandal.”

A spokesman for British American Investment Co., which owns Bramer, who didn’t want to be identified, said by phone the company may issue a statement or hold a press conference later.

Bramer’s stock fell 40 percent this year before being suspended, the second-worst performance on the benchmark Semdex Index. The lender came under scrutiny after the central bank of the Indian Ocean island conducted an on-site examination between January 22 and February 20 and found a “number of significant deficiencies,” it said in the statement. Bramer had “large withdrawals of deposits” that affected its liquidity and capital, the regulator said.

Trading will be halted until further notice, according to a statement on the website of the Stock Exchange of Mauritius. The Bank of Mauritius pulled Bramer’s license “in the public interest,” it said.

Bramer’s 30,000 deposit accounts will be taken over by State Bank of Mauritius, Finance Minister Vishnu Lutchmeenaraidoo told reporters in Port Louis Friday. SBM, the country’s second-biggest bank, is owned by SBM Holdings Ltd.

After Bramer’s licence was revoked, the Financial Services Commission of Mauritius appointed Andre Bonieux and MushtaqOosman of PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP as conservators of BAI Co., an insurance company also owned by British American Investment, “to safeguard the interests of policyholders,” the FSC said in a statement on its website.