Zee Business Guest Experts, Others Settle Unlawful-Gains Case With SEBI

A case of alleged unlawful gains using non-public information received from Zee Business guest experts was settled with the capital markets regulator after Rs 5.57 crore was paid by 10 entities.

The investigation by the Securities and Exchange Board of India focused on the correlation between trading activities and stock recommendations of the experts from Feb. 1, 2022 to Dec. 31, 2022, according to an interim order published earlier.

Initially, SEBI had identified 15 individuals and grouped them into three categories: profit makers who gained from alleged insider information; enablers who were aiding the profit makers; and guest experts who were allegedly providing the non-public information to the profit makers prior to the broadcasting of their recommendations on the Zee Business television channel.

The regulator, in its interim order, had also asked the involved individuals to repay alleged unlawful gains of Rs 7.41 crore made by taking positions contrary to the guest experts' on-air advice. As per the final order, this amount has been paid.

Later, the applicants filed a proposal with SEBI to settle the instant proceedings without admitting or denying the allegations. Now, along with the fines, the 10 entities have also been asked to undertake a six-month voluntary debarment from the securities market.

The settlement order mentions guest experts Kiran Jadhav, Ashish Kelkar, Mudit Goyal and Simi Bhaumik. "The guest experts not only gave stock recommendations on shows broadcasted on Zee Business but they also had significant social media presence," the order read.

Jadhav, Kelkar and Goyal paid Rs 62.4 lakh each to settle the case, while Bhaumik paid 46.8 lakh.

Pursuant to this, SEBI said it would not be initiating any other enforcement action against the 10 applicants for the violations that were mentioned in the show-cause notice.