MC EXCLUSIVE Sebi raids trading guru Avadhut Sathe’s Karjat Academy in crackdown on finfluencers

As heavy rains lashed the Mumbai metropolitan region for five straight days, a Sebi enforcement team braved the weather to launch a search and seizure at Karjat, a popular weekend getaway in the Sahyadri Hills. At 6:30 am on August 20, officials led by a Sebi deputy general manager knocked on the doors of trader and market influencer Avadhut Sathe, who has been under the regulator’s scanner for months.

The search and seizure operation — described by a person familiar as 'long planned and meticulously prepared' — began early Wednesday morning (August 20) and stretched until Thursday evening. Court approvals had been obtained in advance, movement patterns were tracked, and a reconnaissance was carried out before the strike, two persons familiar with the operation said. Digital devices and trading data were seized for forensic analysis, the sources confirmed.

Sebi whole-time member Kamlesh Chandra Varshney later confirmed at a FICCI-CAPAM event that the regulator had conducted “a big search operation on a big name in this industry.” Without naming Sathe, Varshney said the action was aimed at sending a signal that Sebi is intensifying enforcement against market influencers who misguide retail traders under the garb of education.

“If you are misguiding the youth in the name of education, promising guaranteed returns, giving calls in the classroom, using live data to trade… you cannot do that without Sebi registration,” Varshney said. “The idea is to create fear in the market that there is a regulator which is watching you.” While Varshney did not disclose the specifics of the raid, sources indicated that the regulator has received complaints that some trading academies collude with operators to push penny stocks. By weaving such stocks into classroom examples of chart patterns and strategies, these so-called “gurus” may be helping operators ramp up prices.