ING Vysya Bank official settles insider trading case with Sebi

An official of private sector lender ING Vysya Bank today settled a case relating to alleged violation of insider trading norms with Sebi after paying a little over Rs 2 lakh as settlement fee.
Brundavanam Srinivas Vijayamohan allegedly violated the norm. It could not be immediately ascertained whether he is still working with the bank.
The Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) conducted a probe in respect of buying, selling and dealing in the shares of ING during August 2011 to May 2013.
It was alleged that Vijayamohan had offloaded shares of the private sector bank, which were valued over Rs 5 lakh between March and May 2013. However, he did not make any disclosure to the company and stock exchanges about the transaction within two working days.

Accordingly, he had violated Sebi's PIT (Prohibition of Insider Trading) Regulation.
While proceedings against Vijayamohan was in progress, he offered to settle the matter on payment of Rs 2.04 lakh without admitting or denying any violation.

Besides, he also filed disclosures in relation to the alleged violations.
Thereafter, Sebi's High Powered Advisory Committee, after deliberations, recommended the case for settlement on the payment of the amount.
This was also approved by Sebi's panel having whole-time members, following which the official remitted the amount.
Consequently, Sebi, in an order passed today, directed that this "settlement order disposes of the adjudication proceedings initiated against the noticee."

However, the regulator said that enforcement actions, including commencing or reopening of the proceedings, could be initiated if any representation made by the individual is found to be untrue.
Last month, four officials of ING Vysya Bank had settled cases related to alleged violation of insider trading norms with Sebi after paying Rs 41 lakh as settlement fee.
In a separate case, Dhiru Realestates has settled a case related to alleged non-compliance of shareholding disclosure norms with Sebi after paying Rs 2 lakh as settlement fee.
It was alleged that the entity had acquired a total of 30 lakh shares of Interworld Digital in December 2013 through off market transactions. Following this, its shareholding increased to 5.02 per cent from 4.39 per cent. However, it failed to make the necessary disclosures.