Sebi levies fine on Biocon employee for violating insider trading norms

Markets regulator Sebi on Friday levied a fine on an employee of Biocon Ltd for violating insider trading norms while dealing in the scrip of the firm.

The employee, Vandana Singh (noticee), general manager regulatory affair of Biocon at the time of investigation and also a designated person, is facing a fine of Rs 3 lakh for violating provisions of Prohibition of Insider Trading (PIT) norms.

An investigation carried out by the regulator found that Singh, who held 9,550 shares of the company, acquired through exercise of employee stock option plan (ESOP), sold 3,550 shares between May 2018 to September 2018 without seeking pre-clearance from the compliance officer.

"The noticee by not obtaining pre-clearance from the compliance officer of Biocon for the transactions in question has violated the provisions of...PIT Regulations," Sebi said.

In addition, Singh also delayed making requisite disclosures.

In terms of PIT Regulations, every promoter, employee and director of every company shall disclose to the company the number of securities acquired or disposed of within two trading days of the transaction if the value of the securities traded crosses a certain threshold.

In the instant case, Singh's transactions exceeded the value of Rs 10 lakh on two occasions and were required to be disclosed within two days, but she failed to do so.

Accordingly, Sebi imposed a consolidated fine of Rs 3 lakh on Singh for both the violations -- not obtaining pre-clearance and making delayed disclosures.