Sebi levies Rs 1.15 cr fine on Voltaire Leasing and Finance, others for fraudulent trading

Markets regulator Sebi has imposed total fine of Rs 1.15 crore on Voltaire Leasing and Finance Ltd, its officials, one entity and eleven individuals for fraudulent trading in the shares of the firm.

They violated Prohibition of Fraudulent and Unfair Trade Practices norms.

The investigation period was between August 2014-July 2015. They had manipulated the price of the scrip and the company and its directors--Dilip Rajkumar Patodia, Amlesh Sadhu and Harivallabh Mundra --were also part of the scheme for manipulating the price in the scrip.

"By executing manipulative trades, as has been executed by these noticees in the instant matter, the price discovery system itself is affected. It also has an adverse impact on the fairness, integrity and transparency of the stock market," Sebi said.

All the entities forming the group of off-market transferors, the group of sellers and the company and its directors in charge of its affairs at the time of the violations, have manipulated the scrip price.

The firm is facing a fine of Rs 10 lakh and the three directors are facing fine of Rs 15 lakh each.

Besides, Sebi has imposed fine of Rs 5 lakh each on others.

In another order, Sebi levied total fine of Rs 88 lakh on 12 entities for violation of several market norms.

These include Nikita Forex Pvt Ltd, Nature Infosoft, Topline Fabrics and Tushar Commodities, apart from eight individuals.

The fine has been levied in the range of Rs 6-11 lakh.

It was found that they acted as a group, orchestrated a fraudulent scheme where a false and misleading information was circulated through bulk SMSes to create artificial demand, in order to offload large number of shares of Kalpa Commercial to gullible investors.

Besides, the transactions were not in conformity with the provisions relating to spot delivery contract which require that actual delivery/ transfer of shares and the payment should be on the same day as date of contract or the next day.

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