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Day: March 18, 2009

Hemendra Kothari to sell his remaining 10% of DSPML to Bank of America…revived sour memories of DSPML

Saw Hemendra Kothari come on NDTV Profit today and confirm that he has sold the remaining 10% he held in DSPML to Bank of America….Some Years ago he had sold 40% to ML for US $ 500 Million…he refused to disclose at what price he sold this 10%,saying it’s an unlisted company….says he’s now 62 and wants to devote time to Philanthrophy(his family,he says,has been involved in it for years) and Environment and Wildlife Concerns…will remain as Non Executive Chairman of DSP Blackrock though…rubbished the notion that he is selling because he was apprehensive about clashing with the culture and way of operations of  Bank Of America,who has taken over ML

Years ago his DSPML refused to buyback from us shares of Namtech Systems…We had invested a significant amount.DSPML had placed these shares with us at Rs @ 55 with a promise that this Nambiar Group Company ( Nambiar was the Chief Secretary of the Karnataka Govt and whose flagship was the listed Namtech Electronics) would come out with an IPO within a year of placement and we could sell in the Markets or else they would buy back the Shares at Rs 113 if the IPO did not materialise or if the Listed price was lower than Rs 113….Those were heady times and being DSPML we trusted them,only to be let down as they dishonoured their word….When approached by us,Hemendra Kothari and the International Head of ML chose  to simply ignore and not respond and walk away from the buy back committment while Nambiar said that he had no role to play in this Buy back Committment even though we pointed out the MOU to him……It’s over Ten years now and Namtech Systems has gone kaput…no business and no IPO…Oh ! shares yet exist…Not sure of the company though !

That’s why we make icons of Narayan Murthy and Ratan Tata….whose word is their Bond  and whose Measure is not measured just by the Money ! 

      

America continues it’s Absurdity…AIG declares an Employee Bonus of US $ 165 Million !

Check this out on

http://www.slate.com/id/2213936/

Yet being Bailed Out  AIG, has got  US President Obama boiling ,yet helpless…..It has received Billions in Bailouts to keep afloat…and yet has just declared Employee Bonus of US $ 165 Million…says it is a contractual obligation !

And guess what !…they think they need to give it ,otherwise this will disgruntle employees who may leave……same employees who created the excessive leverage mess in the first place !…they say they need these employees to stay with AIG because only they know what they did and only they can defuse it !

Holy S…!….reminds me of mid 1980s when I was a junior in KPMG (KMG a the time) at their overseas office in the Middle East

I was assigned to do some audit work on a Client that used to Import Consumer Goods….The Chief Accountant was an Indian…he had failed his Final CA Examinations several times and had left CA…He thought as I was yet studying to be a CA,he could bully and hoodwink me……Computers were just being introduced,but this Client had Manual Ledgers

This stupid fellow had deliberately messed up Accounting Entries on a big scale…why !?…so that the Client needs him the next year to sort out accounts and he retains his job !…..The Trial Balance would not tally and this Accountant was unable to trace his own deliberately created accounting errors….he pleaded and pleaded and pleaded with me to sort out the mess for him and locate his errors !…..Of course I was indignant but relented as my senior,who knew the accountant, personally requested me to help him out…I did and warned this guy,that by doing what he had done he was actually jepordising his career even more !

So,they want to retain rogue AIG Employees by giving them the Bonus and hope they defuse the crisis they created !…or else they fear they may leave and play the book against specific AIG Positions that they had created themselves and make monies outside !….Is this not criminal !?….The authorities should not succumb to this potential blackmail fear !…What is wrong is wrong !…It’s like these employees are saying ” Give us the Bonus and we’ll show you where we hid the Derivative Weapons that killed AIG !”

Really America continues to behave Absurd !…and a Helpless President rages on !        

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