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    Sebi slaps Rs 7.4-crore fine on 5 Zee Business guest experts, 10 others

    Synopsis

    The fine was slapped for unlawful trades done by some of them based on the recommendations given by the experts when they appeared on Zee Business news channel between February and December 2022.

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    MUMBAI - The Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) has slapped a fine of Rs 7.41 crore against 5 entities, who were part of the guest panel of Zee Business news channel, and 10 other entities on grounds of indulging in fraudulent and unfair acts while dealing in the securities market.

    Further, many of these entities have been restrained from buying, selling or dealing in securities, either directly or indirectly, in any manner whatsoever, until further orders.

    If the noticees have any open positions in any exchange-traded derivative contracts, Sebi has given them three months from Thursday to close out or square off those positions.

    Nirmal Kumar Soni, Partha Sarathi Dhar, Nitin Chhhalani, Rupesh Kumar Matolia, Ajaykumar Ramakant Sharma, Ramawatar Lalchand Chotia, Kiran Jadhav, Ashish Kelkar, Himanshu Gupta, Mudit Goyal, Simi Bhaumik, SAAR Commodities, SAAR Securities, Manan Sharekom, and Kanhya Trading are the 15 entities against whom Sebi has taken the regulatory action.

    The fine was slapped for unlawful trades done by some of them based on the recommendations given by the experts when they appeared on Zee Business news channel between February and December 2022.

    Some of them were directly involved in taking such unlawful trades, while others enabled them, Sebi said in its interim order.

    “I observe that it is a fit case to pass interim directions to insulate the securities market and investors from the mischievous acts of the entities and also to urgently prevent these entities from continuing with their prima facie fraudulent activities while dealing in the securities market,” Sebi Whole Time Member Kamlesh Varshney said in his interim order.

    There is an “urgency” to protect the wrongful gains from getting siphoned off beyond the regulatory reach, he added.

    Sebi had conducted a probe to examine the correlation between the trading activities of the 15 experts and their stock recommendations while appearing on the news channel.

    The regulator has categorized these 15 entities under three categories namely profit-makers, enablers, and guest experts.

    Nirmal Kumar Soni, Partha Sarathi Dhar, SAAR Commodities, Manan Sharecom, and Kanhya Trading have been categorised as profit makers, as they made profits by executing trades based on advance information of stock recommendations given by guest experts.

    Nitin Chhalani, Rupesh Kumar Matoliya, Ajaykumar Ramakant Sharma, SAAR Securities and Ramawatar Lalchand Chotia have been categorised as enablers, as they allegedly assisted profit makers in making profit based on advance information of stock recommendations of guest experts.

    Kiran Jadhav, Ashish Kelkar, Himanshu Gupta, Mudit Goyal, and Simi Bhaumik have been referred to as “Guest Experts”, who have allegedly provided non-public information to the profit makers before the broadcasting of their recommendations.

    Sebi noted how these certain entities indulged in fraudulent and unfair acts and unlawfully enriched themselves by taking advantage of being in a position to influence innocent investors.


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    Subscribe to The Economic Times Prime and read the Economic Times ePaper Online.and Sensex Today.

    Top Trending Stocks: SBI Share Price, Axis Bank Share Price, HDFC Bank Share Price, Infosys Share Price, Wipro Share Price, NTPC Share Price

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