The trouble for detained businessman Raj Kundra and hiswife Shilpa Shetty does not seem to come to an end as the Securities andExchange Board of India (SEBI) imposed a penalty of Rs 3 lakh on the couple.
SEBI has alleged that Bollywood couple and their company ViaanIndustries have violated insider trading rules. They have been fined for athree-year delay in the disclosure of an allotment of preferential shares.
Notably, in 2015 Kundra’s company had made a preferentialallotment of 500,000 equity shares. Of this 128,800 equity shares each wereallotted to Kundra and Shilpa Shetty.
As per the norm of SEBI’s Prohibition of Insider TradingRules, 2015, the promoters (Raj Kundra and his wife) had to reveal thistransaction to the company within two days if it exceeded the value of Rs 10lakh. However, the company in turn has to relay this disclosure to the stockexchanges within two trading days.
In the case pertaining to Kundra and Shetty and their companyViaan Industries, the said value of their transaction was Rs 2.57 crore eachand the disclosures were made in 2019, with a three years delay from the actualdate.
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The SEBI slapped the notice to the couple and imposed afine of Rs 3 lakh. In a reply to the notice, Shetty acknowledged that it was amistake and it was not done with malafide intent.
However, the SEBI adjudicating officer Suresh B Menonrefused this explanation and imposed a fine, in an order on Wednesday.
It is to be reiterated here, Raj Kundra was arrested byMumbai Police Crime Branch on July 19 in connection to the case of creating andpublishing pornographic content on apps. The businessman to be in the policecustody till August 10 as his bail petition was turned down by the Bombay HighCourt earlier today.