Sebi slaps Rs 17 lakh fine on 2 entities

Capital market regulator Sebi today imposed a total penalty of Rs 17 lakh on two entities for alleged non-complaince with the disclosure norms.
Sebi has imposed a penalty Virtual Global Education for failing to make annual disclosure to the stock exchanges for the period 1998-2009.
In a separate matter, Sebi has also imposed a penalty of Rs 5 lakh on Vakrangee Softwares senior executive Prem Meiwal for delay in making disclsoures to the company and the stock exchanges with regard to change in his shareholding.
In the case of Virtual Global Education, the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) found that the company "had not made the disclosure to the exchange under the provisions of...The Takeover Regulations for twelve consecutive financial years from 1997-98 to 2008-09".

Accordingly Sebi in an order today said that it is imposing "a penalty of Rs 12 lakh on the noticee Virtual Global Education Ltd ".
In the other matter, Sebi found that Meiwal, Head of Finance at Vakrangee Softwares, had transacted in the shares of the firm during the months of June-August 2009, January 2010 and February-August and September, 2011 which were in excess of Rs 5 lakh in value and as result triggered an obligation for him to make disclosures within stipulated time.

"The noticee (Meiwal) had made disclosures to the company belatedly that is on November 29, 2011 and further, failed to make the disclosures to the stock exchanges," Sebi said in the order today.

"...Hereby impose a penalty of Rs five lakh on the noticee viz Prem Meiwal," it added.
Meanwhile, Sebi through another order, has slapped a fine of Rs 1 lakh on Ganesh Foundry and Castings for failure to obtain registration with the regulator's online complaint redressal system SCORES as well as not resolving pending investor grievances.
"...The noticee failed to take SCORES authentication in compliance with Sebi circular dated April 17, 2013," the regulator said.
Further, it added that the company "failed in resolving the investor grievance pending against it within the specified time limit, despite being called upon to do so by Sebi".

"It is of utmost importance that every listed company assigns high priority to investor grievances and takes all necessary steps to redress the grievances of investors at the earliest, which the noticee has failed to do," Sebi noted in the order against Ganesh Foundry and Castings.