In the second order of its kind this year, the Securities and Exchange Board of India has found a business news television anchor and three other people as well as two family entities belonging to them, guilty of violating securities laws. It's an ex-parte order—the parties have yet to represent their case.
This is an indication that Alpesh Furiya and entities connected to him were, prima facie, interested in executing trades to benefit from the increased trading interest of investors around the telecast of recommendations of Pradeep Pandya, affirmed by Alpesh Furiya.SEBI Interim Order
The actions of Pandya, Furiya and related entities were prima facie found to be unfair and manipulative and in violation of SEBI's Prevention of Fraudulent and Unfair Trade Practices Regulations.
Based on which SEBI has directed that:
Pandya, Alpesh and related parties be restrained from buying/selling or dealing in securities, directly or indirectly.
Pandya and Alpesh to cease from offering any investment advice or recommendations via any media.
Over Rs 8 crore to be impounded from their bank accounts till which time their accounts to remain frozen. Of that Rs. 6.5 crore to be impounded jointly from Pandya and Alpesh's accounts.
They aren't to dispose or alienate any assets.
To be clear, this is an ex-parte, interim order and not a final one. The parties have 21 days to file their responses/objections and seek to be heard.
The securities regulator had, in January this year, passed a similar order against another CNBC-Awaaz anchor, Hemant Ghai.
Pandya recently moved from CNBC-Awaaz to ET Now Swadesh—a Hindi channel that was launched today by the Times Network. For a brief period prior to 2019, Pandya also worked with BloombergQuint. He hasn't responded to a BloombergQuint request for comment on this story. We weren't able to reach the Furiyas.
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