Sebi Imposes Fine on Reliance Industries, Mukesh Ambani And Two Other Entities For Alleged Manipulative Trades in RPL

The market watchdog has imposed penalties of Rs 25 crore on RIL and Rs 15 crore on Ambani in the RPL trading case.

New Delhi: Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) has imposed a fine on Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) and its Chairman & Managing Director Mukesh Ambani along with two other entities for alleged manipulative trading in the shares of erstwhile Reliance Petroleum Ltd (RPL) back in November 2007.

According to a PTI report, the market watchdog has imposed penalties of Rs 25 crore on RIL and Rs 15 crore on Ambani in the RPL trading case. Apart from that, Navi Mumbai SEZ Pvt Ltd has been asked to pay a penalty of Rs 20 crore and Mumbai SEZ Ltd has been directed to pay Rs 10 crore. The case is related to sale and purchase of RPL shares in the cash and the futures segments in November 2007. This followed RIL’s decision in March 2007 to sell 4.1 per cent stake in RPL, a listed subsidiary that was later merged with RIL in 2009.

In a 95-page order, Sebi’s Adjudicating Officer BJ Dilip said any manipulation in the volume or price of securities always erodes investor confidence in the market when investors find themselves at the receiving end of market manipulators.

“In the instant case, the general investors were not aware that the entity behind the above F&O segment transactions was RIL. The execution of the… fraudulent trades affected the price of the RPL securities in both cash and F&O segments and harmed the interests of other investors,” he said in the order.

Noting that execution of manipulative trades affects the price discovery system itself, the adjudicating officer said, “I am of the view that such acts of manipulation have to be dealt sternly so as to dissuade manipulative activities in the capital markets.”

(With PTI inputs)