SEBI imposes Rs 3 lakh-fine on Shilpa Shetty, Raj Kundra for flouting insider trading norms

New Delhi, July 29: The Capital Markets regulator Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) slapped a monetary penalty of Rs 3 lakh on Shilpa Shetty, Raj Kundra, and Viaan Industries, the company they own.

 

 

SEBI has imposed a fine on them for a three-year delay in disclosing an allotment of preferential shares. The market regulator said the penalty has to be paid jointly and severally by Kundra and Shetty, who are promoters of Viaan Industries. The market regulator further asked them to remit/pay the penalty within 45 days of the receipt of the order.

 

The order follows a probe conducted between September 2013- December 2015 to ascertain a violation of Prohibition of Insider Trading (PIT) norms by the entities.

 

 

In 2015, Viaan Industries had made a preferential allocation of 5,00,000 equity shares, of which,1,28,800 were allocated to its promoters Kundra and Shetty.

 

According to the SEBI’s PIT Rules, they were supposed to reveal this transaction to the company within two days if the amount exceeds the Rs 10 lakh value. However, the transaction was disclosed only three years later in 2019, despite the value exceeding Rs 2.5 crore each.

 

 

 

"It is on record that the relevant disclosures under the PIT Regulations were made by the Notices with a delay of more than three years," Sebi noted.

 

"Therefore, considering these facts and circumstances, I hold that this case deserves imposition of monetary penalty upon the Notices," said adjudicating officer Suresh B Menon in an order.

 

It comes amid when police arrested the Kundra in an adult movies case. He was arrested on July 19 for allegedly making pornographic content and publishing them through some mobile applications. He is currently in police custody.

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