After Angel One, another leading brokerage Zerodha blocks Stock Burner from referral link

Finfluencers usually earn a tidy sum by sharing referral links—to open accounts with brokerages-- in their content.

After Angel One warned its clients from associating with its former referral partner Dinesh Kirola, another leading brokerage Zerodha has removed him from their referral programme.

On August 23, Moneycontrol had done an article on Kirola, who was a referral partner of various leading brokerages including Angel One, being accused of manipulating his trading profit and loss (P&L) statements to bag more students for his courses and to funnel more people to partner brokerages. Following this, the two brokerages have taken action against Kirola, whose influence has been growing rapidly over the past few months gathering nearly 10 lakh followers/subscribers across social-media platforms.

Also read: 'Partner’ of leading brokerages accused of editing P&L for online traffic; brokerages largely noncommittal

Kirola, who runs various handles under the name Stock Burner, had shot to fame as being the former Army personnel who turned his life around through trading.

A spokesperson at Zerodha told Moneycontrol that the brokerage has removed his referral link. Finfluencers usually earn a tidy sum by sharing referral links—to open accounts with brokerages-- in their content. They are given a share of the brokerage fee earned from the trades taken by clients they funnel in.

A few days ago, when asked for a comment on the Moneycontrol’s story, Zerodha’s spokesperson had said that they cannot comment on individual clients (such as Kirola) but said that they block referrals from people who are reported to be committing fraud and that this process usually takes two weeks. The brokerage has acted earlier than stated, that is, within a few days from the report.

On August 24, Angel One had sent out an advisory to its clients, asking them not to engage with Kirola.

Angel One’s mail to clients said, “In our continuous effort to keep you safeguarded from the market-related frauds and increase awareness while conducting trades, we request you to ensure that you do not engage with the individual mentioned below.”

It added, “Person named ‘Dinesh Kirola’ operating through mobile number ‘84498 63550’ who runs various social media accounts under the name Stock Burner is providing stock market courses and populating his account profit & loss in social media to attract investors”.