02 Mar , 2023 By : Monika Singh
The Securities and exchange board of India has banned 31 individuals including Arshad Warsi and his wife Maria Goretti Warsi from buying, selling or dealing in securities for manipulating shares of Sadhna Broadcast by uploading misleading videos on YouTube. Capital markets regulator SEBI said that promoters of Sadhna Broadcast, and Arshad Warsi, along with Manish Mishra, the creator of youtube channels ‘Moneywise’ and ‘The Advisor’ recommended investors to buy the company shares, inflating its price and later dumped it. In one of the videos, the accused said that the Adani group will take over Sadhna Broadcast Ltd and after the acquisition, the company’s margin will improve. The other video claimed that the company is moving from TV production to movie production and a big American corporation has entered into a contract for Rs 1,100 crore to produce four devotional movies where the money will be brought in by the American investor but the rights will remain with Sadhna.
Sadhna Broadcast Ltd stock movement before and after the misleading videos got published:
The order came after SEBI received certain complaints wherein it was alleged that there was price manipulation and offloading of shares by certain entities in the scrip of the television channel Sadhna Broadcast. The complaints alleged that misleading YouTube videos with false content about the company were uploaded to lure investors.
Following this, the regulator conducted an examination during April-September 2022 and found a spurt in the price and volume of scrip of Sadhna between April and mid-July 2022. During the second half of July 2022, false and misleading videos about Sadhna were uploaded on two YouTube channels — “The Advisor” and “Moneywise”.
According to SEBI, Arshad Warsi has made a profit of Rs 29.44 lakh, his wife Rs 37.56 lakh, YouTuber Manish Mishra Rs 14.46 lakh, promoter Gaurav Gupta made Rs 7.6 crore, Shreya Gupta Rs 2.18 crore, Pooja Agrawal Rs 1.47 crore and Varun Media Rs 1.11 crore along with other people. The total alleged illegal profits made after the videos were uploaded was Rs 41.85 crore. Collectively, NSs and some of the VCs have booked extraordinary profits as a result of this scheme.
All the entities have been directed by SEBI not to dispose of any assets, whether movable or immovable including money lying in bank accounts except with the prior permission of Sebi until the impounded amount is deposited in the escrow account.
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