Bangalore: Dalit Voice was the first in India to disclose the “Dirty deals of the Times of India”, the largest circulated English daily of a Marwadi company (DV Feb. 1, 2008, p.7).
As almost the entire upper caste-dominated toilet papers, with minor exceptions, have become intellectually corrupt-like all other wings of the ruling class-who is there to catch the thief?
Here is a further elaboration of the big frauds in the Times.
(Source: http://www.contentsutra.com/entry/419-times-private-treaties-under-the-spotlight-portfolio-erosion-investor-c/)
In a country where it is not routine for media to report on other media houses (with rare and honourable exceptions), the Private Treaties racket of Bennett Coleman publishers of The Times of India, was the subject of two stories in leading national dailies on May 10, 2009. While the Business Standard (BS) focussed on the erosion in value of BCCL’s PT portfolio, DNA raised broader concerns and quotes a number of named and unnamed stock market players, some of whom urge the intervention of capital markets regulator, Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi), into the practice. Private Treaties, a concept pioneered by BCCL and followed by other media houses such as the Hindustan Times and the Bhaskar Group, is an investment programme through which a media house picks up equity in a company in exchange for ads.
Ads are exchanged for products such as cars or apartments, in what has come to be known as a barter deal.
Conflict of interests: The ads-for-equities version is more controversial because of the obvious conflict of interests when a newspaper is reporting about a company in which its publisher has financial interests in. Media houses such as BCCL usually defend private treaties saying it doesn’t influence editorial coverage. According to the BS story, the value of listed holdings in BCCLS PT portfolio, has declined 50%. The story quotes Private Treaties CEO, S. Sivakumar, as saying that the entire portfolio (including unlisted holdings) is down by 40% in value. BCCL has trimmed the PT division to 100 people, from 140. DNA focuses more on the rising concern among investors and market players about media houses practices such as PT, in the wake of the recent Sebi report on the Pyramid Saimira scam.
Promoters of Pyramid Saimira Theatre Ltd. were found to have forged a Sebi letter to fraudulently drive up the scrip.
Corrupt journalists: The interim order by the market regulator found that Rajesh Unnikrishnan, an assistant editor with The Economic Times, also appears to have facilitated the publication in the media of the forged letter. At the end of a detailed investigation that has come in for widespread praise from several corners, the report, signed by Sebi member K.M. Abraham, had come to the following conclusion:
In view of the above, I have no hesitation in concluding that Nirmal Kotecha, Rakesh Sharma and Rajesh Unnikrishnan, have jointly played a key role in an arrangement contrived to defraud investors in the market, and derive illegal profits thereof.
Nirmal Kotecha, a promoter of Pyramid Saimira, was found to have benefitted from a forged Sebi letter asking the promoters to make an open offer, in a successful ploy to fraudulently drive up the scrip. Rakesh Sharma, an employee of the public relations firm Ad Factors, was found to have helped Kotecha publish the news of the open offer in the media, based on the forged letter. Pyramid Saimira is a private treaties client of BCCL., and Ad Factors, a joint venture partner in Tatva Public Relations, a PR firm. BCCL owns 33% in Tatva and Ad Factors owns the rest, according to reports in the media.
Stock advice on TV: DNA quotes several named and unnamed market players calling for Sebi intervention to bring in complete transparency and mandatory disclosures of interest along with every story where an invested company is involved.
Former Sebi chairman M. Damodaran whipped up a storm when he spoke out against anchor-investors, referring to experts who offer stock advice on TV, many of whom have interests in the scrips they are commenting on, but do not say so. With ethical lines critical to the practice of journalism blurring with each new innovative service being offered by media houses to advertisers, on whom they are almost entirely dependent, media will have a weak defence even if only a section is guilty when the government or a regulator steps in to curb its freedoms. Interestingly, BCCL, which is shortly expected to launch
business channel ET Now, has taken down the industry-wide portfolio from the Private Treaties website. The Google cache shows the list was available as on 6 May, but the link is now broken.
