SEBI bars entities in stocks recommendation case for two years

The Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) has barred noticees who were recommending stocks with ‘guest experts’ on a popular business television channel while being in possession of non-public information for a period of two years, according to its final order released on Monday (July 28).

The noticees namely Nirmal Kumar Soni, Partha Sarathi Dhar, SAAR Commodities Private Limited (SAAR Commodities), Manan Sharecom Private Limited, Kanhya Trading Company and Nitin Chhalani among others indulged in holding positions before speaking on the TV channel and squared them off after the show, SEBI found. 

“Noticees devised a scheme to take advantage of the advance possession of non-public information about the recommendations given by guest experts on the shows,” SEBI said.

“The scheme involved guest experts to share, directly or indirectly, their recommendations with Nirmal Kumar Soni and Partha Sarathi Dhar, before the same was broadcasted on the TV channel. The exact timings of the shows were also shared among the guest experts and noticee nos. 1 and 2,” SEBI noted. 

Kiran Jadhav, Ashish Kelkar, Himanshu Gupta, Mudit Goyal, and Simi Bhaumik were the guest experts who recommended the stocks with the other noticees who executed the trades. An amount of ₹7.4 crore were found to be the unlawful gain of the insider trading and the notices were directed to jointly deposit the said money in an escrow account, according to SEBI’s interim order.

Ten of the 15 noticees settled with SEBI and hence charges against them were disposed of.

The remaining, after a request with SEBI for settlement and denials which the regulator called as unsubstantiated, were debarred from the securities market for two years. The noticees were Partha Sarathi Dhar, SAAR Commodities Private Limited, Manan Sharecom Private Limited and Kanhya Trading Company. The debarment period shall be reckoned from the date of the interim order dated February 8, 2024, SEBI said . A joint penalty of ₹4 crore was levied, with SAAR Commodities Private Ltd. being charged the highest amount of ₹2 crore.