The Securities and Exchange Board of India ( SEBI ) imposed fine of Rs 11.9 Crore on 19 entities which includes 2 telegram channels for up stock price by 100% in 8 months.
The authority imposed fine on Rajneesh Kumar, the director of Superior Finlease Rs. 5 crore; go-betweens Ashish P Shah and Kirtidan K Gadhavi Rs. 2 crore each; a third go-between Jalaj Agrawal who hired a Telegram-channel operator for the scheme Rs. 2 crore; the Telegram channel operator Arvind Shukla Rs. 50 lakh; and other entities Rs. 10 lakh each.
According to the regulator’s order, the entire buying that led to the price-rise was being financed through two firms–a non-banking finance company (NBFC) Superior Finlease and stock broker Indian Finance Guaranty Ltd (IFGL)–where Rajneesh Kumar was the director.
The SEBI investigations revealed that the stock’s price had risen considerably–even more than 100 percent over 8 months–from Rs 100 on February 1, 2021, to Rs 183.75 on September 13, 2021.
It rose further by another 20 percent on a single day, when the recommendation was made on the Telegram channels. On that day, or on September 14, 2021, the price went up by as much as Rs 220.Thereafter the price saw a steady decline to close at Rs. 63.15 on September 30, 2021.
The trading volume also saw a significant spike on the day on which the recommendation was made on the Telegram channel.
The volume rose from 9,440 shares (between February 1, 2021, and September 13, 2021) to 2,28,337 shares. That is a whopping 24x increase on recommendation day.
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