Around 31 organizations were banned by the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) on March 2, 2023, for indulging in stock manipulation.
This includes YouTuber Manish Mishra, actor Arshad Warsi and his wife Maria Goretti, and a few promoters of Sadhna Broadcast, namely Pooja Aggarwal, Shreya Gupta, Saurabh Gupta, Gaurav Gupta, and Varun Media, who belong to the securities market and who misleadingly encouraged investors to purchase the company’s shares through YouTube videos.
Incident In Detail
The Securities and Exchange Board of India, or SEBI, claimed in a report that “there was price manipulation and offloading of shares by certain entities in the script of television channel Sadhna Broadcast.”
SEBI alleged that they found a group of investors uploading “misleading” content on YouTube promoting two Delhi-based broadcasting companies, Sharpline Broadcast Ltd. and Sadhna Broadcast Ltd. According to SEBI reports, the YouTube videos were presenting false data to influence stock prices, and as a result, only those involved in the scam were being benefited.
SEBI also mentioned that “misuse of patently false and misleading YouTube videos, had led to drastic increase in the number of small shareholders (from 2,167 to 55,343 shareholders), who ended up buying shares from the noticee net sellers and volume creators at inflated price.”
As per SEBI reports, the companies made a total profit of around Rs. 41.85 crores after the “pump and dump” scam. All 31 members involved have been ordered to pay back the above-mentioned amount by opening an escrow bank account and depositing the money there.
Pump And Dump Scheme
The “pump and dump” scheme is a type of commercial scam where at first the stock prices are falsely raised or “pumped” through manipulation and misleading statements to trick the investors.
Then the mastermind of the scheme suddenly sells or “dumps” the shares at a much higher cost, resulting in a steep drop in the price of the stock. As a result, the investors suffer heavy losses.
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SEBI claims that this is what happened with Sharpline and Sadhna stock prices. The two companies misled investors through their own YouTube channels, each with thousands of subscribers.
The YouTube channels Profit Yatra with 3.35 lakh subscribers and Midcap Calls with 4.29 lakh subscribers promoted Sharpline’s shares, while TheAdvisor with 8.2 lakh subscribers and MoneyWise Stocks with 7.67 lakh subscribers coaxed people to buy Sadhna’s shares.
Warsi And His Wife’s Involvement
Out of 41.85 crores, reports allege that Arshad Warsi secured around Rs. 29.43 lakhs while his wife, Maria Goretti, gained about Rs. 37.56 lakhs. SEBI claims both Warsi and his wife purchased and sold Sadhna shares. They played a significant role in an increase in market volumes and shares.
However, on March 2, 2023, the actor Arshad Warsi dismissed all the accusations against him and his wife on Twitter. Rather, he asserted that they were mere dupes of alleged fraud and that they were persuaded to invest in the company.
Let us know what you think of the situation in the comment section below.
Disclaimer: This article is fact-checked
Image Credits: Google Images
Feature image designed by Saudamini Seth
Sources: The Print, The Indian Express & Mint
Find the blogger: @ekparna_p
This post is tagged under: scam, fraud, stock market, stocks, shares, securities market, Arshad Warsi, Maria Goretti, Manish Mishra, Sharpline Broadcast Ltd, Sadhna Broadcast Ltd, companies, cheat, money, crores, Securities and Exchange Board of India, viral, stock manipulation, Indian actor, pump and dump scheme
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