CG Power case: Sebi slaps 5-year ban on Gautam Thapar; penalises 11 entities

Markets regulator Sebi on Tuesday imposed a five-year ban as well as penalties on CG Power and Industrial Solutions' former chairman Gautam Thapar and three other entities for diversion of funds and misrepresentation of the company's financial statements of earlier.

Besides, three other individuals -- the company's former CFO V R Venkatesh and two ex-directors Madhav Acharya and B Hariharan -- have been barred for periods varying from 6 months to 3 years.

The watchdog has penalised a total of 11 entities in the matter. Others are K N Neelkant, Atul Gulatee, Aditya Birla Finance Ltd and IndusInd Bank, according to a 248-page order.

The markets regulator has imposed penalties totalling Rs 30.15 crore on 11 entities in the matter.

Sebi said it has banned Gautam Thapar, Avantha Holdings, Action Global and Solaris Industrial Chemicals from the securities markets for 5 years. A fine of Rs 10 crore has been imposed on Thapar, while the three other entities have been slapped with a penalty of Rs 5 crore each.

A fine of Rs 10 lakh has been imposed on Neelkant, Rs 5 lakh on Gulatee and Rs 1 crore each on Aditya Birla Finance Ltd and IndusInd Bank.

"... noticees herein, acted in concert in order to execute a fraudulent scheme of diversion of funds or creating encumbrances of assets of a listed entity. In the said scheme, each Noticee played its assigned role in order to give these transactions a colour different than the one which they actually hold. In this process, they exceeded their authority, they exercised authority which was not vested in them and misused the authority given to them," Sebi said.

As a result of their acts, Sebi said the funds/assets belonging to the listed company were either diverted or were created encumbrance upon, because of which the company's total liabilities and that of CG Power Group may have been potentially understated by around Rs 1,053.54 crore and Rs 1,608.17 crore, respectively, as on March 31, 2018 and by Rs 601.83 crore and Rs 401.83 crore, respectively, as on April 1, 2017.