Sebi imposes Rs 40 lakh fine on Karuturi Global's entities

Sebi has imposed penalties worth Rs 40 lakh on different entities,
including promoters of Karuturi Global, for alleged violations of  various norms like requisite disclosures about shareholding patterns.

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In seven separate orders dated July 2, Sebi imposed penalities on Karuturi Global MD KS  Ramakrishna and company's 3 promoter entities — Anitha Karuturi, Rhea Holdings and Simply Class Fashions for  violations of various regulations.

Besides, fines have been slapped on Karuturi Global's director Anil T and persons acting in concert with promoters.

In one order, Sebi has imposed a penalty of Rs 3 lakh on Ramakrishna for indulging in insider trading activities and  not making requisite disclosure regarding his shareholding. The regulator said its probe had found that Ramakrishna  as managing director of Karuturi Global had traded in shares of the company while the trading window was closed.

As per the code of conduct under the insider trading norms, Ramakrishna was required to take permission from the company before trading which he failed to do.

In an another order, Sebi has collectively imposed a fine of Rs 15 lakh on Ramakrishna, three promoters and director Anil T  for failure to make public announcement regarding acquisition of substantial number of company's shares.

Consequent to a conversion of warrants into shares in 2006, the aggregate stake of these entities went up by 14.5 percent. As per norms, upon such acquisition of shares that go beyond the threshold limit of 5 percent, the entities were required to make public announcement of offer.

Another penalty of Rs 15 lakh was imposed on Ramakrishna Anitha Karuturi and their PACs for allegedly not making a public announcement after their stake in the company grew by 17.26 percent in 2005.

Separately, Anitha Karuturi and Simply Class Fashions were slapped with Rs 2 lakh each, while Rhea Holdings was imposed a fine of Rs 3 lakh for not making requisite disclosures to the company and the concerned stock exchange.

Meanwhile, Sebi has disposed off the case against Karuturi Global that alleged the firm of not providing BSE its  revised shareholding pattern for the September quarter 2004. "I concede with the submissions of the noticee  (Karuturi Global) that the errors were inadvertent,  unintended and did not cause any harm to the investors," Sebi's  adjudicating officer P K Kuriachen said in the order.

"... the noticee has already taken steps to rectify the errors. I am of the view that the present case is not fit  for warranting imposition of monetary penalty," he added.