Sebi slaps Rs. 3 lakh fine on Raj Kundra, Shilpa Shetty, Viaan Industries for disclosure lapses and violation of insider trading norms
Actress Shilpa Shetty and husband Raj Kundra have been in the headlines for the past few weeks. Bollywood actor's businessman husband was arrested and is in judicial custody for allegedly making pornographic films for mobile applications. While his bail has been rejected and he will be in judicial custody for a while, the couple is in the news for another issue. Now, it is been reported that market regulator Sebi on July 28, slapped Rs. 3 lakh fine on Viaan Industries Ltd, Shilpa Shetty Kundra, and Raj Kundra for disclosure lapses and violation of insider trading norms. The monetary penalty has been imposed on them jointly and severally. The noticees refer to Viaan Industries, Shilpa Shetty Kundra and Ripu Sudan Kundra, also known as Raj Kundra.
Shilpa Shetty and Raj Kundra are joint promoters of Viaan Industries Ltd which is named after their son. The order follows a probe that was conducted between September 2013-December 2015 by entities for violation of Prohibition of Insider Trading (PIT) norms. According to the reports, in October 2015, Viaan Industries made preferential allotment of Rs. 5 lakh to four persons and 1,28,800 lakh shares each which amounts to Rs 2.57 crore each that were alloted to Raj Kundra and Shilpa Shetty. They were required to make timely requisite deposits as the transactions exceed Rs. 10 lakh in value.
"It is on record that the relevant disclosures under the PIT Regulations were made by the Noticees with a delay of more than three years," Sebi said in a statement to PTI. "Therefore, considering these facts and circumstances, I hold that this case deserves imposition of monetary penalty upon the Noticees," said Suresh B Menon, adjudicating officer, in an order.
