Sebi bans eight, including 2 company staff, for insider trading in Infosys

Illegal gains worth Rs 3.06 crore impounded

The Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) has restrained eight entities, including two Infosys employees -- Pranshu Bhutra, Amit Bhutra, Bharat C Jain, Manish Jain, Ankush Bhutra, Venkata Subramaniam V. V, Capital One Partners and Tesora Capital -- from trading in the stock market for insider trading in Infosys for the quarter ended June 30, 2020.

The value of illegal gains to the tune of Rs 3.06 crore has been impounded from Capital One, Tesora, Amit, Bharath, Ankush and Manish.

Amit and Bharath are working partners of Capital One. Amit, Ankush Bhutra and Manish Jain are working partners of Tesora.Venkata Subramaniam is the Senior Principal, Corporate Accounting Group of Infosys while Pranshu Bhutra is the company's Senior Corporate Counsel. 

According to Sebi, Pranshu had procured UPSI from Venkata and so Venkata and Pranshu had prima facie violated the provision of SEBI Act and PIT Regulations.

Amit was connected with Pranshu through frequent telephonic communication, while Bharath Jain and Amit are partners of Capital One Partners and are connected through professional relationship and frequent telephonic communication. 

Capital One and Tesora had traded in Infosys in the F&O segment just prior to announcement of financial results for the quarter ended June 30, 2020 and subsequently squared off their positions such that their net positions were zero.

Both Amit and Bharath had placed orders on behalf of Capital One. Amit had placed orders on behalf of Tesora. In the process, Capital One Partners and Tesora Capital had made illegal gains of Rs 2.79 crore and Rs 26.82 lakh respectively by indulging in insider trading while in possession of the UPSI.

According to Sebi, Capital One and Tesora regularly traded in a variety of scrips but had significant trading activity in Infosys only during the weeks close to the dates of corporate announcement of financial results for the quarters ended December 2019, March 2020, June 2020 and September 2020.

"The trading concentration of Capital One and Tesora in the scrip of INFY had increased drastically during the said weeks. Thus, Capital One and Tesora have the same repetitive pattern of trading in the scrip of Infy during periods close to the announcement of financial results," Sebi said.