Aadhar Ventures Raised Share Price By Making Fake Announcements

Aadhar Ventures had raised the share price by making fake announcements, and now SEBI has imposed a fine of 25 lakhs.

The Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) has imposed a fine of Rs 25 lakh on Aadhar Ventures India Ltd (AVIL) and its directors for violating insider trading rules and non-compliance with listing conditions.

The company and its directors made false corporate announcements to affect the value of the shares of the company.

AVIL announced in August 2014 to acquire a company in Africa and set up a subsidiary in Singapore. However, this was not done on the ground.

These announcements were made only to affect the value of the shares of the company.

SEBI, in its investigation, found this mistake to be correct and has now imposed a fine on the company and the directors.

They have to pay a fine.

SEBI has imposed a penalty of Rs 10 lakh on Aadhaar Ventures Ltd, its directors Jill Raichand Madan, Sombhai Sundarbhai Meena, and Jyoti Munawwar for not providing correct information to the exchanges.

It has to be filled jointly. Not only this, SEBI has imposed a fine of Rs 5 lakh on Meena and Aadhar Ventures for violating insider trading rules.

Munavvar, being the compliance officer of the company, has been fined Rs 5 lakh for not sharing the required information with the exchanges.

SEBI initiates a probe into the price manipulation of AVIL shares.

Preliminary investigation revealed that the company had announced in August 2014 to acquire a company in Africa and set up a subsidiary in Singapore.

But, he didn’t actually do that. After this, SEBI conducted a thorough investigation of the matter from July to September 2014.

It was revealed in the SEBI investigation that the company had made both announcements to affect the value of the company’s share.

As per the Annual Report of AVIL also the announcements made by the company were not implemented.

The company did not give information even after repeated requests

When BSE asked AVIL to provide details regarding its announcements, the company failed to provide any information in this regard.

SEBI has said in its order that “This information has an impact on the performance of the company and the firm is liable to provide such price-sensitive information to the stock exchange on a continuous and immediate basis.

But the company has failed to do so, thus AVIL, Madan, Meena, and Munawar violated the disclosure norms by not informing the stock exchange.”

Jyoti Munawar is the Compliance Officer of AVIL. It was his responsibility to ensure timely and consistent disclosure requirements from the company.

But Munawwar did not do so and he violated the insider trading prohibition rules.

SEBI also said in its order that AVIL has violated the rules twice. Therefore the company imposed a fine of Rs 5 lakh on AVIL.