SEBI Says Gujarati Businessman Hid Rs 15 Lakh Crore From Gatekeepers and Regulators in India |
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For nearly thirty years, Rajesh Exports represented Indian entrepreneurial ambition. The success story of its promoters, Rajesh and Prashanth Mehta, inspired countless Gujarati entrepreneurs, to whom it proved that a small family jewellery dhanda (business) could become a global gold empire. Their 2015 acquisition of Swiss gold giant Valcambi SA made headlines worldwide and put them among India’s top business icons.
It was said for years that Rajesh Exports is the only company in the world with presence across the entire gold value chain, from refining to retailing and that it is the largest processor of gold in the world. REL, as Rajesh Exports is known, was said to process 35% of gold produced in the world. Sources said its sales so far would have easily surpassed $45 billion. The company also owns Valcambi, said to be the world’s largest gold refinery at Balerna in Switzerland.
Valcambi is owned by European Gold Refineries, which is owned by Global Gold Refineries AG, which in turn is 95% owned by REL Singapore PTE Ltd. and 5% by Rajesh Exports Limited India. Valcambi is thus 100% controlled by Rajesh Exports, the parent company of REL Singapore. SEBI also claims that shareholder wealth erosion linked to the alleged misconduct in the company could amount to Rs 12,726 crore.
But today, allegations of financial misrepresentation cloud that glittering success story. The Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) has in an interim order related to an investigation into REL and its owner, Rajesh Mehta, concluded that Rs 15.15 lakh crore was allegedly misrepresented over five years. SEBI has, as a result, barred Rajesh Mehta from buying, selling or otherwise dealing in Rajesh Exports securities until further orders.
“It is an interim order and nothing in it is true,” Rajesh Mehta, chairman and managing director at REL said on June 3 as per reports, “We are going through the findings and will share a detailed statement,” he added.
But investors and admirers are left stunned, wondering what’s real and what isn’t. Within hours of SEBI’s interim report being published on June 2, 2026, panic swept the markets. Shareholders watched their money disappear as Rajesh Exports shares hit the lower circuit, tumbling 5% in one morning.
But tumbling share prices are just the tip of the iceberg. At the heart of SEBI’s case is a question that SEBI raises: How could a company report such astronomical revenues, year after year, with so little independently verified?
What started the probe
In March 2024, SEBI received representations questioning unusually large trade receivables that had remained outstanding for more than two years. (Receivables are amounts the company still has to receive from customers, which is a normal waiting period for a few weeks or months – not years.) Highly delayed receivables attract regulatory attention because they can indicate collection problems, questionable transactions or accounting irregularities.
SEBI appointed an investigating authority in October 2024 and subsequently commissioned a forensic audit. Investigators began examining the overseas subsidiaries through which Rajesh Exports claimed most of its business was conducted.
The regulator concluded in the interim order that between 97–99% of Rajesh Exports’ consolidated revenues were attributed to overseas subsidiaries and step-down........