Ali Hasan
Mukesh Ambani might be the richest person in India but he’s not invincible. Nowadays, he’s facing a lot of backlash from the Indian Farmers as they are protesting against the new farm bills that were earlier passed by the Indian Government and just when he thought, his troubles increased as he’s fined by SEBI.
Mukesh Ambani has been fined a total of Rs 40 crores regarding alleged manipulative trading in the shares of Reliance Petroleum back in November 2007. Rs 25 crores have been imposed on Reliance Industries Limited while Rs 15 crores have been imposed on him.
Along with Ambani, the Navi Mumbai SEZ has been asked to pay a penalty of Rs 20 crores while Mumbai SEZ has been asked to pay Rs 10 crores.
The case pertains to sale and purchase of Reliance Petroleum Limited shares in the cash and the futures segments in November 2007. This followed RIL’s decision in March 2007 to sell 4.1% stake in RPL, a listed subsidiary that was later merged with RIL in 2009.
In a 95-page order, Sebi’s Adjudicating Officer B J Dilip said any manipulation in the volume or price of securities always erodes investor confidence in the market when investors find themselves at the receiving end of market manipulators.
“In the instant case, the general investors were not aware that the entity behind the above F&O segment transactions was RIL. The execution of the… fraudulent trades affected the price of the RPL securities in both cash and F&O segments and harmed the interests of other investors,” he said in the order.
While noting that execution of manipulative trades affects the price discovery system itself, the adjudicating officer said, “I am of the view that such acts of manipulation have to be dealt sternly so as to dissuade manipulative activities in the capital markets.”
On March 24, 2017, SEBI had ordered RIL and certain other entities to disgorge over Rs 447 crores in the RPL case. In November 2020, the Securities Appellate Tribunal (SAT) dismissed the company’s appeal against the order.
At that time, RIL had said it would challenge the tribunal’s order in the Supreme Court but now its chairman, Mukesh Ambani has to pay Rs 40 crores no matter what.
