Watch out investors

Watch out investors! A note of caution- The Economic Times :: GIREESH CHANDRA PRASAD : "The government has sensed that many companies with a blemished past are getting fatter in the present stock market boom. To caution the investing public, the company affairs ministry will soon launch a media campaign asking them not to go by the “window dressed” results of companies. The awareness drive will ask the public to verify a company’s history and be assured that it had never been a defaulter.

The campaign, to be supported by the ministry’s Investor Education and Protection Fund (IEPF), will also ask the public to check the company’s antecedents and all the orders passed against it by the economic regulators.

Specifically, the ministry will tell the investors to check the past of all directors on the company’s board. The proposed drive will also help in preventing new arms of known defaulters entering the market at a high premium.

For easy verification, the ministry has set up a website called www.watchoutinvestors.com which displays all orders and indictments against companies by regulators, courts of law and banks. The site also offers a search facility to track the history of directors. It helps investors to identify defaulters who reappear in the market changing the company name or by floating new companies or schemes. "