Sebi has fined 15 guest experts of Zee Business channel with respect to trading in the stock market. Sebi said that they made unlawful gains of Rs. 7.41 crore from trading. The profit was shared with guest experts as per prior understanding. All the 15 guest experts will not be able to buy, sell or deal in securities, either directly or indirectly, in any manner whatsoever until further orders. Sebi has told Zee Media to preserve and maintain all records, documents, and video records of their shows until the final order is passed.
The experts in question took taking opposite positions in the market than what they had advised on the air. Some of the guest experts have confirmed that they were sharing recommendations before the airing of the show. They had a profit-sharing model in their statements given to Sebi. Sebi has asked investors to excercise due diligence before accepting free flowing advice given on TV or on social media.
Action has been taken against the experts who had appeared on the channel from from 1 February 2022 – 31 December, 2022. Sebi had examined a high correlation between the trading activities of certain entities and the stock recommendations given by guest experts. Some of them were directly involved in taking such unlawful trades, while others enabled them. Some of them have also been barred from trading in the market until further orders.
“The facts of this case demonstrates clear scheme of manipulation to harm the interest of investors by misguiding them to take position in securities so that profit makers could make profit at the cost of such investors,” Sebi said in its 127-page order.
Sebi has categorised them in three categories. Kiran Jadhav, Ashish Kelkar, Himanshu Gupta, Mudit Goyal, and Simi Bhaumik were involved in giving trading advice to viewers, and are therefore guest experts. Nirmal Kumar Soni, Partha Sarathi Dhar, SAAR Commodities, Manan Sharecom and Kanhya Trading Company are profit makers. The rest are enablers.
“There are many experts who are spreading financial literacy in India and empowering investors to take their own decisions…the same cannot be said about a few other experts who take advantage of their mass following to make unfair profits by misguiding innocent investors,” SEBI said.
The regulator has analysed SMS, Whatsapp, and Telegram chats along with the bank and other details.
Sebi has restricted debit from the bank accounts of the alleged wrongdoers and curtailed redemptions from their mutual fund holdings.
It has given the experts three months to close their open positions in the derivatives market.
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