A Dhaka Stock Exchange investigation into the stock’s trading between 1 June 2025 and 28 August 2025 revealed that the company’s closing share price shot up 131.11%, rising to Tk83.20 from Tk36.00 in less than three months.
Logo of the Bangladesh Securities and Exchange Commission (BSEC). Photo: Collected
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Logo of the Bangladesh Securities and Exchange Commission (BSEC). Photo: Collected
The Bangladesh Securities and Exchange Commission (BSEC) has slapped a total penalty of Tk73.76 lakh on investor Md Abu Taher Shikder and his two associates – wife Umma Salma Nipa and brother-in-law SM Shahed Shakil – for artificially inflating the share price of Trust Islami Life Insurance Limited through illegal series trading and circular counterparty transactions.
According to an enforcement order issued on 5 October 2026, the capital market regulator penalised key mastermind Abu Taher Shikder Tk53.25 lakh, while fining his associates Shahed Shakil Tk15.51 lakh and Umma Salma Nipa Tk5 lakh for breaching securities laws.
A Dhaka Stock Exchange investigation into the stock’s trading between 1 June 2025 and 28 August 2025 revealed that the company’s closing share price shot up 131.11%, rising to Tk83.20 from Tk36.00 in less than three months.
BSEC found that Abu Taher Shikder operated multiple beneficiary owner accounts across several brokerage houses to execute targeted buy and sell orders, dominating market volume and artificially driving up share quotes.
The regulatory probe uncovered that the trio engaged in series transactions to create a deceptive appearance of active trading. Furthermore, they acted as counterparties to each other’s trades in 46 separate instances involving 1.72 lakh shares in the public market to manipulate prices.
Through this coordinated scheme, Abu Taher Shikder and his associates realised a capital gain of Tk2.82 crore from the trading of Trust Islami Life shares during the period, alongside holding unrealised gains exceeding Tk5.08 crore.
In their written explanations to the commission, the individuals claimed that their investments were made in good faith based on the insurer’s fundamentals and that matching counterparty orders occurred unintentionally due to phone orders placed through different brokerages.
However, BSEC rejected their arguments, ruling that the violations of the Securities and Exchange Ordinance, 1969 were deliberate and harmful to market integrity. The commission directed the penalised individuals to deposit the fine via bank draft or pay order within 30 days.
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