The Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) has imposed a fine of Rs 8 crore for violation of insider trading norms on three individuals and one company in relation with the PC Jeweller case. The individuals are Shivani Gupta, Sachin Gupta and Amit Garg. Quick Developers is the company included in this list of four entities having to pay the penalty. The link to PC Jewellers is that Sachin Gupta is the son of Padam Chandra Gupta, the former chairman of PC Jeweller and Shivani Gupta is the daughter in law. Amit Gupta is Padam Gupta’s nephew.
The order issued by SEBI says “A sum of Rs 6,17,60,184.13 shall be impounded jointly and severally, from Shivani Gupta, Sachin Gupta and Amit Garg, being the notional loss avoided on account of trades carried out in the trading accounts of Shivani Gupta, and a sum of Rs 2,13,23,161.64 shall be impounded jointly and severally, from Quick Developers Pvt. Limited and Amit Garg, being the notional loss avoided/gains made on account of trades carried out in the trading account of Quick Developers Pvt. Limited".
SEBI has added a lot of instructions to this order imposing the penalty. One is to those who have been penalized, to immediately create an escrow account for the amounts to be paid as penalty. The other is to their banks to ensure that they do not debit any amounts from the accounts of all four entities till such time they establish the escrow account and confirm.
The other instruction is the routine fiat in all such cases. The three individuals and Quick Developers will not be permitted to access the securities market and they are prevented from buying or selling or dealing with securities. The exact period of this ban is not mentioned.