SEBI cracks down on ZEE Business guest experts; Rs 7.4 crore fine imposed by market regulator

In a February 8 interim order, SEBI has asked several guest experts appearing on the Zee Business news channel to cough up Rs 7.41 crore “unlawful gain” that they made by taking opposite positions in the market than they advised on air, as per reports.

Action has been taken against fifteen experts appearing on the channel between February 01, 2022 and December 31, 2022. 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, SEBI said in its order on February 8.

They include Simi Bhaumik, Mudit Goyal Himanshu Gupta, Ashish Kelkar, Kiran Jadhav, Ramawatar Lalchand Chotia, SAAR Securities India Private Limited, Ajaykumar Ramakant Sharma, Rupesh Kumar Matoliya, Nitin Chhalani, Kanhya Trading Company, Manan Sharecom Private Limited, SAAR Commodities Private Limited, Partha Sarathi Dhar and Nirmal Kumar Soni.

SEBI 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 hence have been bracketed as guest experts. Nirmal Kumar Soni, Partha Sarathi Dhar, SAAR Commodities, Manan Sharecom and Kanhya Trading Company have been termed profit makers and rest are enablers.

Kamlesh Varshaney, Whole Time Member, SEBI, in his order, “I note that the Noticees have played specific roles at various stages which have, prima facie, been found to be in violation of the SEBI Act and the regulations made thereunder. Analysis of evidences gathered in the course of investigation reveal that Guest Experts shared advance information pertaining to recommendations to be made by them with Profit Makers, before the broadcast of the recommendations on Zee Business."

SEBI stressed that the need to take an urgent decision was required in this case as investors’ education is very important to sensitise them against falling for such experts.

"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.

Thus it is important for investors to exercise due diligence before accepting any free flowing advice on TV or social media.

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