`Did Credit Suisse sell, for whom?' -- Rathi tapes unplugged
EXPRESS NEWS SERVICE

While ex-BSE President Anand Rathi now says that he knew all along that his conversation with the BSE’s surveillance officer was being taped (these are the tapes that forced his resignation), the transcript shows just how porous the entire system is. Rathi got details of which top brokers and institutions were selling, and this could be used by anyone. Rathi, of course, defends himself saying since the market didn’t crash any more after his conversation on March 2 it fell 170 points before the conversation clearly no one misused the information he gathered.

What SEBI is investigating now is whether Rathi had passed on such sensitive information to operators in the past, and how they used it there were at least seven or eight people in the room when Rathi had the conversation over the speaker phone.

The transcript of Rathi’s March 2 conversation below was accessed exclusively by CNBC India. Following are the excerpts:
Anand Rathi: Tell Reddy (of the surveillance deparment to get in touch with me), meanwhile tell me if any institutions are selling.
Arun Dhandawade (officer in the surveillance department): Basically operators are selling. In the morning there was a lot of institutional selling. Only Credit Suisse was selling heavily.
Rathi: On whose behalf did Credit Suisse sell?
Arun: I’ll get the client details. It is marked seperately as FIIs.
Rathi: Who else is selling heavily?
Arun: Let me check Himachal
Rathi: Who are the other brokers besides Himachal?
Arun: Hello, hello. Sir, basically in Himachal and all basically operators only. Sellers are operators only. We don’t find much of an institution.
Rathi: What else?
Rathi: What’s happening in Infosys?
Arun: Infosys also basically operators have sold sir.
Rathi: No FIIs?
Arun: There is no FII interest in Infosys.
Rathi: In Satyam?
Arun: Credit Suisse is third here.
Rathi: Yes?
Arun: Infosys selling only we find Credit Suisse is there. The rest are all operators, and Morgan (JM Morgan Stanley) is also there.
Rathi: Who else is there? What are the first two names?
Arun: Kotak and Ramraj
Rathi: Who is that?
Arun: Ramraj Securities. In Infosys Sir, Kotak, Ramraj, then Credit, then Maheshwari.
Rathi: Yes ...
Arun: CD Equisearch
Rathi: Will not Kotak be selling for institutions too?
Arun: I’ll check Kotak and let you know. Then in Satyam, also we are having mostly operators sir.
Rathi: Is there no institution?
Arun: Morgan is the last. Rest is Damani and Bakliwal, L.K. Pandey.
Rathi: What else? Arun: Reliance Sir, there are top sellers here. There also Morgan is there. Jardine is there. Dresdner is there. Lots of institutions are there.
Arun: There are sellers in Wipro too. Suisse is in the fifth place. The rest are operators
Arun: There are a few institutional sales in Global Tele
Rathi: Who else is there?
Arun: Claridges.
Rathi: Baring?
Arun: Claridges 190.
Arun: Only Mukesh babu is highest, I suppose 450. Nothing against institutions.
Rathi: Ok. Ask Reddy to speak to me when he returns.

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