Sebi bars individual from acting as portfolio manager for 1 yr

Market regulator Sebi today barred one Vijay Kumar Gaba, for one year, from acting as portfolio manager after finding him guilty of providing investment-related advisory services to clients without obtaining requisite approval.
The regulator found that Gaba was acting as a portfolio manager in 2006 without obtaining registration from Sebi and therefore violated PMS (Portfolio Management Services) regulation.
In an order, the regulator restrained "Gaba from making an application to Sebi for offering portfolio management services or investment advisory services or any activity in the securities market requiring registration for a period of one year."
In his submission to Sebi, Gaba said that "even if it is assumed that his advisory services prior to June 28, 2007 were of PMS nature, they were stopped from that very day when he joined DSP Merill Lynch."

Gaba also said that he did not advise anyone after joining DSP Merill Lynch as a Research Analyst and did not undertake any advisory activity for anyone post his resignation in May 2012, as per the submission.
"The noticee(Gaba) had indulged in offering unregistered portfolio management services in 2006. Further, there appears to be no material on record at this stage to suggest that the noticee had continued with such activities post June 2007," Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) said in its order.
Accordingly, he was restrained from providing such services.
Gaba was allegedly charging fees on monthly basis for providing market and investment related services to a few of his clients in Delhi.