Court okays 'equitable, graded' payout scheme for IMA investors

Over 55,000 investors who lost money in the IMA Ponzi scheme are set to get back some of it in the next 20 days. 

On Thursday, a special court ordered the IMA competent authority to disburse nearly Rs 70 crore to 55,126 investors under an equitable, graded and proportionate distribution scheme. 

IMA, a so-called Halal investment company headquartered in Bengaluru, went bust in June 2019 after its founder Mohammed Mansoor Khan fled to Dubai. At the time, it owed its 61,984 investors Rs 2,695 crore. 

The state government appointed a special officer and competent authority to recover investors’ money by attaching and auctioning IMA's movable and immovable assets. 

The authority seized IMA’s assets valued at Rs 475 crore, but could auction only movable ones such as jewellery, cars and electronic devices. Since the IMA's  immovable assets, valued at Rs 350-375 crore, were also seized by the Directorate of Enforcement, the competent authority will petition the ED court for permission to auction them. 

Of the money received from the auction of movable assets, the authority earlier paid Rs 19.62 crore to 6,858 investors. 

On June 17, 2023, Amlan Aditya Biswas, the Special Officer and Competent Authority for IMA, sought the permission of the special court for KPID cases to disburse another Rs 69.46 crore to the investors. 

The authority segregated investors into the most affected and least affected based on their deposit amount and payable dues. The least affected depositors are those who received more than 90% of their dues from IMA. The most affected are those who did not receive any. 

Shridhar Gopalakrishna Bhat, the Special Judge for KPIDFE cases, accepted the formula and ordered the competent authority to settle the dues within 20 days and report back to the court. "The fresh settlement scheme... appears to be just, reasonable and equitable," the court stated. 

Biswas told DH that penny drop verification would be carried out to comply with the court's order. Re 1 will be sent to the bank accounts of all depositors in the next 10 to 15 days. 

"Verified accounts will receive the money as per the formula presented in the court," he told DH. "There will be no SMS verification." 

Unverified accounts will be sent notices to their last known addresses and asked to submit their bank details afresh, Biswas added. 

The authority has also asked for additional documents/details from about 1,000 IMA accounts. 

IMA scam: The story so far

Total claim amount: Rs 2,695.13 cr
No of validated accounts: 71,631
Accounts that received more than the invested amount from IMA: 9,647
Total liability after deducting payouts already received by depositors from IMA: Rs 1,400 cr
Value of IMA's attached properties: Rs 475 cr
Accounts fully paid by the competent authority: 5,638
Accounts partly paid: 1,220
Accounts to be paid fully/partly: 55,126
Amount currently available with the competent authority: Rs 69.45 cr