Securities Appellate Tribunal order on Sebi-DLF case today

Last month, Sebi slapped fines worth Rs 86 crore on DLF, its top executives, their family members and various other related entities for entering into "sham transactions" to mislead IPO investors

The Securities Appellate Tribunal (SAT) will announce on Friday its order on DLF's plea against a Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) ruling that barred the realtor and its six top executives, including Chairman K P Singh, from markets for three years.

SAT had reserved its order last month on appeals filed by DLF, Singh and five others, including his son Rajiv Singh and daughter Pia Singh.

The Sebi had passed an order in October last year after finding them guilty of “active and deliberate suppression” of material information at the time of its IPO in 2007, thus misleading the investors.

While the October order did not include any monetary penalty, the Sebi passed another directive last month, in the same case, wherein penalties totalling Rs 86 crore were imposed on DLF, its top executives and a host of related persons and entities including spouses of some executives who were “housewives”.

The tribunal would pronounce its judgement on the appeals filed by DLF and others on Friday, according to latest information available on the SAT website.

The Sebi order passed in October was challenged by DLF the same month before the tribunal.

In the case, apart from Singh, his son and daughter, Managing Director T C Goyal, former CFO Ramesh Sanka and Kameshwar Swarup, who was ED-Legal at the time of the company's public offer in 2007, were also barred by the Sebi.

After its over four-year-long probe, the Sebi had found that a “case of active and deliberate suppression of any material information so as to mislead and defraud the investors in the securities market in connection with the issue of shares of DLF in its IPO is clearly made out in this case.”

DLF’s IPO in 2007 had fetched Rs 9,187 crore — the biggest IPO in the country at that time.

Last month, the Sebi slapped fines worth Rs 86 crore on DLF, its top executives, their family members and various other related entities for entering into “sham transactions” to mislead IPO investors.

After the last Sebi order, DLF had said it would challenge the same but it is yet to do so.