SAIL employee settles case with SEBI; pays Rs 45.50 lakh

New Delhi: A Steel Authority of India (SAIL) employee on Tuesday settled with markets regulator SEBI a case of the alleged violations of insider trading activities in the company's shares by paying Rs 45.50 lakh towards the settlement charges.

The terms of the settlement also included the disgorgement of alleged unlawful gain of Rs 40.09 lakh (which includes interest of 12 per cent per annum.

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In the revised settlement terms (RST), the applicant (Arun Verma) proposed to voluntarily abstain from the securities market for a year.

The order came after the applicant filed an application with SEBI, proposing to settle the pending proceedings through a settlement order without admitting or denying the findings of fact and conclusions of law.

"...it is hereby ordered that the instant proceedings initiated against the applicant (Arun Verma) vide show cause notice dated October 10, 2023, are disposed of," SEBI's Chief General Manager G Ramar said in the order.

The Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) conducted an investigation into the scrip of Steel Authority of India Ltd (SAIL) based on the internal alert.

Further, the probe revealed that Yamini, the applicant's wife, had traded in the scrip while in possession of unpublished price-sensitive information (UPSI) in respect of the corporate announcement made on the financial results for the quarter and half-year ended September 30, 2021, and the declaration of dividend.

It was also observed that the trade was allegedly executed by Arun Verma on behalf of Yamini, who was authorised to trade in her account in violation of Prohibition of Insider Trading (PIT) rules.

Thereafter, a show cause notice was issued to Verma, who was in possession of the sensitive information, for trading in the shares of SAIL in the cash, futures and options segment and made a profit of Rs 32.15 lakh.

By doing so, Arun Verma had allegedly flouted the insider trading norms.

After remitting the settlement fee of Rs 45.50 lakh, disgorgement amount of Rs 40.09 lakh and voluntarily abstaining from the securities markets for a period of one year. Arun Verma settled the case with SEBI.

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