Sebi fines Geodesic's chairman, 2 directors Rs 14 lakh for disclosure lapses

Markets regulator Sebi Wednesday imposed a total fine of Rs 14 lakh on the chairman and two directors of Geodesic Ltd for disclosure lapses over the purchase of the company's shares.

In a three separate orders, the regulator fined chairman, Pankaj Kumar and managing director Kiran Kulkarni Rs 6 lakh each, while Rs 2 lakh was imposed on director Prashant Mulekar for violating PIT (Prohibition of Insider Trading) regulations.

With regard to Pankaj and Kiran, Sebi observed during the investigation that Pankaj and Kiran bought 8.75 lakh shares and 6.9 lakh shares of the company, respectively, while Pankaj sold 7,000 shares, Kiran dispose of 5,000 shares in 2011.

The entities made delayed disclosure regarding the transactions to the company and the exchanges, and besides, being chairman and managing director of the firm, they entered into opposite transactions (buying and selling) within six months, thereby violated PIT norms, Sebi said.

In the case of Prashant Mulekar, the director made delayed disclosure to the firm and exchanges with regard to purchase of Geodesic's 1.5 lakh shares, which was in contravention of PIT norms, regulator said.

Accordingly, Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) imposed a total fine of Rs 14 lakh on them.

In a separate order, Sebi Wednesday slapped a fine of Rs 5 lakh on Prakashchandra Chunilal Jagawat for indulging in execution of reversal trades in stock options with same entities on the same day, leading to false and misleading appearance of trading in the illiquid stock options at BSE.

After observing large scale reversal of trades in stock options segment of BSE leading to creation of artificial volume, Sebi conducted a probe into the trading activities of certain entities during April 2014 to September 2015.

The regulator found that Jagawat was one of the various entities indulged in execution of non-genuine trades in stock options segment of BSE during the investigation period.

"Noticee (Jagawat) by indulging in execution of reversal trades in Stock Options with same entities on the same day, had created artificial volume, leading to false and misleading appearance of trading in the illiquid stock options at BSE and therefore violated the provisions of ...PFTUP (Prohibition of Fraudulent and Unfair Trade Practices) regulation," Sebi noted.

Illiquid stock options in market parlance are those contracts which cannot be offloaded in a quick time at the prevailing market price.

In another order, the regulator has levied a fine of Rs 2 lakh each on five individuals for indulging fraudulent trading in the shares of P M Telelinks Ltd.

The individuals facing penalties are -- Jagdish Ramanlal Patel, Vijay Babulal Shah, Span Tradelink, Bhavini Vijaykumar Shah and Daivik Jatin Shah.

These individuals, who are connected to each other, contributed to price rise in P M Telelinks' stock fraudulently by repeatedly placing buy orders at a price higher than LTP (last trading price) manipulated the price of the scrip and violated the provision of PFTUP norms, the regulator noted.