The ₹150-crore prop-trading scam

In today’s episode on 15th November 2025, we break down one of the wildest prop-trading blow-ups in recent times that ran on fake terminals, insane leverage and a whole lot of misplaced trust. Limited seats for Insurance Webinar by Ditto 👉🏽 ⁠Click here to register while seats last⁠ https://ditto.webinarninja.com/series-webinars/7081/register?in_tok=6ff831ff-8cee-43ec-9716-694bf2c761e5&utm_source=Finshots&utm_medium=Newsletter.

• 0:00Speaker 00

  Hello folks, you're tuned in different shots daily. In today's episode, we break down one of the wildest prop trading blowups in recent times that ran on fake terminals, insane leverage and a whole lot of misplaced trust.

• 0:14Speaker 00

  But folks, here's a quick side note from team Ditto. Insurance just got cheaper. Since the government removed the 18% GST on insurance premiums, life and health policies now cost less. But cheaper does not always mean simpler. That's why we're conducting a two-day insurance masterclass where we'll help you understand what to buy, how much cover you need and how to avoid common mistakes. Only few seats remaining, click the link in the description to save your spot. Now, back to the story. It begins in Surat in a small office where dozens of traders logged in every morning, convinced that they were part of something big. They believed they were trading through a reputable broker terminal, getting special limits that normal retail traders could never access

• 0:58Speaker 00

  and using a setup that looked institutional and efficient. For months, it worked like a charm. Until one random morning, the terminals simply stopped responding. And to know the workings behind how this came to be, let's take it from the top. You see, this office, according to Money Control's reporting, belonged to a firm called Greenwall Enterprises. If you walk past it, you'd see Janam stockbroking boards everywhere. Everyone casually called it the Janam branch. And nobody even questioned it. Because, well, who goes around checking if a board on the wall is fake? Except it was and Janam later clarified that they had absolutely nothing to do with Greenwall. But here's where things started to get interesting.

• 1:43Speaker 00

  Behind Greenwall was a man, Darshan Joshi, known as DJ. Now, DJ wasn't a SEBI-registered stockbroker himself. Instead, he ran a Greater Noida-based firm called I Trade Associates that was closely linked to Greenwall. And he handled crores of rupees that traders sent him from Delhi NCR, Jaipur, Ranchi, Colapur, wherever. So, he was basically operating as an agent for Greenwall.

• 2:10Speaker 00

  People trusted him because he gave them something magical, crazy leverage. The kind where a one crore deposit turns into over seven crore rupees of trading firepower in the F and O. That's future and options markets. But before we go further, let's take a step back to understand how prop trading actually works. See, in markets, this high power betting usually happens through something called a proprietary trading desk or simply a prop desk. It's basically a special account that brokers use to trade their own money, their money, their risk. It's meant only for them and not for outsiders. And because it's house money, brokers typically have more flexibility internally in terms of how much risk they want to take, how big the positions can be and how fast they can move.

• 2:54Speaker 00

  This isn't the kind of freedom a retail trader gets. So, the key point is that prop trading is strictly meant for broker using its own capital for its own benefit and not for outsiders looking to borrow leverage. But that's exactly what was happening at Greenwall Enterprises. Some brokers found a way to quietly let outsiders trade using these prop accounts, something that, by the way, is strictly prohibited, and earn from it on the side. And traders realized they could get monster leverage without the usual rules or paperwork. That way, both sides benefited and so nobody asked too many questions. And that's what led to a perfect little black market trading system. Now, for instance, a trader would hand over twenty to fifty lakh rupees to an agent like DJ.

• 3:39Speaker 00

  DJ would take the money to Greenwall, where the broker effectively gave the trader access to brokers' prop trading limits, even though the trades were made in the broker's name. In return, the broker earned interest, brokerage and sometimes a profit share. DJ pocketed a commission and the trader got massive leverage and freedom to trade without formal checks. Now, all this happened, by the way, without any KYCs, contracts or client codes. At least not in a way a regular retail account would have them. But it didn't matter because profits kept coming in. Until in August, the key individuals behind Greenwall, Nimitzha and Hireen Jadhav simply vanished. Yes, vanished. Terminals froze mid-trade and positions could not be squared off.

• 4:23Speaker 00

  And suddenly, everyone realized the horrible truth. Their money wasn't in the official broking system to begin with. It was floating in informal channels or dummy trading accounts or private bank accounts, controlled by people who were no longer picking up calls. Now DJ claimed he was a victim too. Losses was first estimated at 5 crore rupees, then jumped to 22 crores and then 40 crores and eventually, industry insiders said the number might be closer to, wait a minute, 150 crore rupees. And the deeper investigators went, the uglier things looked. Greenwall's collapse bought to, light, a wider ecosystem. In many of these prop trading setups, brokers like Greenwall were showing outside traders as employees on paper,

• 5:08Speaker 00

  issuing salary slips so they appeared as in-house staff during inspections. Thousands of fake NISM certificates were being floated around so traders could get approved user IDs on prop terminals. Many traders genuinely believed this was alleged setup and didn't know they were breaking rules simply by logging in. In these arrangements, losses could be shifted onto such employee accounts, deposits withheld and profit and loss updates sent through unofficial emails. Money Control even detailed a similar case in Mumbai, where traders lost around 1 crore rupees and were allegedly threatened when they showed up to ask for refunds. And the worst part is that none of this technically appears in Sabhi's famous statistic that 91% of FNO traders lost money in FI25

• 5:52Speaker 00

  because these trades didn't originate from real client accounts in the first place. They happen outside the system, in the shadows. So, what's next you ask? Now, for now, market regulator Sebi has stepped in and asked exchanges to investigate the misuse of prop trading accounts, including who was actually sitting behind such terminals and how access in Surat got extended to traders in places like Delhi, Jodhpur and Kalaipur. The regulator is also pushing for tighter rules such as mandatory mapping of MAC, that's Media Access Control, and IP addresses. So, investigators can precisely identify where trades were placed. Separately, its probe is expected to look at issues like fake certificates and roundabout money flows between brokers and related entities.

• 6:37Speaker 00

  But, the key question is, how did so many people walk straight into this mess? How did something this obviously risky, this obviously informal, this obviously too good to be true feel normal to so many traders across so many cities? And, a big part of the answer lies in simple human psychology. You see, markets amplify hope and fear, and above all, they amplify the belief that somewhere out there, someone is playing the game better than you. So, when an agent whispers, "This is how the big traders operate", it doesn't feel like a warning but a secret. It feels like you've been handed an insider pass to a smarter, faster, more powerful way of making money, and once that feeling kicks in, the brain quietly switches off all the

• 7:22Speaker 00

  alarms. And, that's the thing about shortcuts. They don't announce themselves as shortcuts. They arrive disguised as opportunities: special limits, exclusive access, low margins, high confidence. They actually work beautifully, right up until the moment they don't. And by the time you realise you were balancing on a thread, the thread has already snapped. Most traders caught in the saga weren't reckless gamblers, they were hopeful of better-than-normal returns too quickly. They saw people around them making money and they assumed that if so many people were doing it, it had to be legitimate. It felt like they had discovered a clever trick that the rest of the world hadn't figured out yet. But as Warren Buffett loves to remind the world,

• 8:07Speaker 00

  there are no free lunches, especially in markets, where every extra ounce of return has a matching ounce of risk hiding in the shadows. And that's exactly where the whole saga lands. Because the real danger wasn't just the fake terminals or the shady intermediaries, it was the illusion and the belief that traders were getting something the system wouldn't normally give. Once that illusion felt real, everything else looked normal. It's a reminder that if your name isn't on the trading account, if your money isn't inside the regulated system, if the paperwork doesn't exist, if the limits look magical and if everything relies on "just trust me, bro", then you're not trading. You're sitting in a backroom casino.

• 8:51Speaker 00

  So, the next time anyone promises you such things, you know what to do. Run away as fast as you can and don't stop to negotiate. Folks, I will see you on the next one. Have a happy weekend.

• 9:06Speaker 01

  Thank you for listening to today's episode. And if you want to share your feedback or suggestions, do drop us an email to [email protected]. Until next time.