SEBI upholds ban on 22 entities in Sadhna Broadcast stock manipulation case

SEBI, market regulator, has confirmed its ban on 22 entities involved in a case related to manipulation of Shna Brocast's share price. manipulation was carried out through dissemination of misleing videos on YouTube channels. ban restricts se entities, with exception of Kundan Singh Bisht, from tring Shna's stock during ongoing investigation. estimated illegal gains from this manipulation have been revised to Rs 38.61 crore.

SEBI's Whole-Time Member, Ananth Narayan G, issued a confirmatory order that upheld ban on 21 entities, as ir submissions were insufficient to refute preliminary findings of fraudulent and manipulative activities in interim order issued on March 2, 2023.

regulator noted that liability for illegal gains me by each entity would be borne individually. It also revoked impounding orders against Subhash Agarwal, Saurabh Gupta, Paras Shah, and Arpan Gupta, as no illegal gains were found to be directly linked to ir tres.

In a gesture of leniency, Bhim Singh Chaudhary and Yogesh Kumar Gupta were allowed to withdraw funds up to Rs 1 lakh per month to cover medical expenses for ir family members.

SEBI's latest order covers 22 entities, with Securities Appellate Tribunal (SAT) previously setting aside interim order for four noticees. A confirmatory order dated July 20 has also been issued concerning five or noticees. regulator emphasised that investigation would proceed without any influence from previous orders, and appropriate legal proceedings would follow based on investigation's outcome.

In its initial order from March 2, 2023, SEBI revealed that false and misleing videos about Shna Brocast were uploed on YouTube channels in latter half of July 2022. se videos promoted buying Shna stock for extraordinary profits, leing to an increase in stock's price and tring volume. This surge was primarily fueled by retail investors influenced by misleing YouTube content.

Promoters, key management personnel, and non-promoter shareholders of Shna took vantage of inflated prices to sell a significant portion of ir holdings and book profits. 

SEBI categorised involved entities into different roles, including creators of YouTube channels, net sellers/promoters, profit makers, volume creators (VCs), and information carriers (ICs). Toger, y orchestrated a "pump-and-dump" scheme for Shna Brocast Limited, creating tring volumes and interest while spreing false and misleing information to induce small investors to buy stock at elevated prices.

(With PTI Inputs)