Jignesh Shah

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Jignesh Shah is the founder and former CEO of the Multi Commodity Exchange of India Ltd. (MCX), and co-founder, chairman and managing director of Financial Technologies (India) Ltd (FTIL), the software firm which launched the commodities platform in November 2003. MCX is India’s largest commodities exchange and has a 70% share of commodities traded in the country. 
Shah was also vice chairman of the Dubai Gold & Commodities Exchange, which he helped to set up. Forbes Magazine listed him as one of the richest people in India up until 2010. 
Shah was arrested in Mumbai in May 2014 in connection with the Rs.5,574.34 crore fraud at National Spot Exchange Ltd (NSEL), which was founded by him and promoted by FTIL. He was charged with criminal breach of trust, forgery and conspiracy.
 
After resigning as vice-chairman of MCX on 31 October 2013, Shah said in a statement, “The NSEL crisis has destroyed everything that I have worked hard to build over past two decades. My loss is not just financial but what has hurt me and my family most is the concerted effort to destroy my credibility and trust for which I have lived by all my life.” 
In 2018, the Central Bureau of Investigation in India searched his office and home in connection with "irregularities" associated with gaining regulatory approval for the Multi Commodity Exchange of India as a national commodity exchange. In the meantime, his firm called 63 moons, which previously was called Financial Technologies (India), had its revenues from its trading software called ODIN, diverted into an escrow account, essentially freezing his accounts.
== Involvement in Investigation of National Spot Exchange Limited (NSEL)==
In November 2013, Shah resigned from the board of Multi Commodity Exchange of India, the nation’s biggest commodity trading platform, after National Spot Exchange Limited (NSEL), which is a related spot exchange, failed to pay Rs 5,600 crore to investors and an investigation was started by India’s commodities futures market regulator. Shah said he resigned in order to avoid any harm to shareholders and investors from the "mud slinging" over the allegations concerning the National Spot Exchange. He has also said that neither he nor FT were aware of the goings on at NSEL.
The economic offences wing (EOW) of the Mumbai police froze all of Shah's personal accounts, along with those of Joseph Massey and Anjani Sinha, in connection with the Rs.5,574.35 crore payment crisis. In December of 2013, the Forwards Market Commission declared Shah unfit to hold any position at the MCX exchange. The regulator also charged Shah with being the "highest beneficiary of the fraud perpetrated" at NSEL. 
In February of 2014, the Forwards Market Commission asked Financial Technologies to bring down its shareholding in Multi Commodity Exchange of India (MCX) from 26% to 2%. The commission directed that neither Shah individually, nor though any company he controlled, should hold shares in any exchange in excess of the threshold limit of the total paid-up equity capital. 
On March 20, 2014, Sebi ruled Financial Technologies India (FTIL) not "fit and proper" to own stakes in any stock exchange. FTIL was required to sell its shares in five entities including MCX-SX within 90 days. Earlier, the Forward Markets Commission (FMC) issued a show cause notice to Shah and others in the NSEL case in early October 2013 asking why their status as ‘fit and proper person’ should not be revoked following the NSEL "fiasco". 
In March 2014, Bharat Sheth, Ravi Sheth and private equity house Blackstone, which have a combined shareholding of more than 15 percent in Financial Technologies, threatened legal action against the company's board of directors, insisting that Jignesh Shah should step down and the company bring in a strategic partner without selling its stake in MCX.
On April 24th, 2015 the Mumbai Police registered a new First Information Report against Jignesh Shaw and other former Multi Commodity Exchange directors. This was after a complaint was lodged by an investor claiming that ₹900 crore (900,000,000) was diverted off the exchange.
(For more on the NSEL investigation, see the NSEL page in MarketsWiki.)
== Background ==
Shah started his career at the Bombay Stock Exchange in 1990, rising to head its automation function and work on its BSE Online Trading Project. Shah left the BSE in 1995 to start Financial Technologies India Ltd (FTIL) alongside Dewang Nerella, another BSE alumnus. He used his lifetime savings to set up FTIL, which is now one of India's leading providers of financial technology. (It is listed on the BSE and the National Stock Exchange of India).
Shah was the vice Chairman of Singapore Mercantile Exchange Pte Ltd., which was sold to ICE in 2014.
Shah was named a Global Young Leader by the World Economic Forum in 2007. Shah was recognized by CLSA, a Asia-Pacific research institution, to be one of the top 20 Indian entrepreneurs. Shah was presented with 'Global Social Entrepreneur' award by Rotary International in 2007.
== Education ==
Shah graduated with a BE in engineering from Bombay University and attended the New York Institute of Finance, where he has undergone specialized training in money and capital markets and futures & options trading.
== In the Media ==
*Interview with Jignesh Shah, MD, Multi Commodity Exchange
== References ==
Category:Bios - Executives
Category:Multi Commodity Exchange of India
Category:Financial Technologies (India)