Sebi slaps fine of Rs 1 crore on IIFL for misusing client funds

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Capital markets regulator Sebi on Monday imposed a penalty of Rs 1 crore on India Infoline Ltd (IIFL) for alleged misutilisation of client securities. The amount has to be paid by IIFL within 45 days.

The order came after Sebi conducted multiple inspections of the books of account of IIFL, now known as IIFL Securities Ltd, for the period April 2011 to January 2017. Based on the findings of the inspection, the market watchdog initiated adjudication proceedings.

"It was found that the noticee had misused funds credit balance clients for settlement obligation of its debit balance clients for 30 days and the total misutilisation was in the range of Rs 26.04 crores to Rs 294.73 crores ranging from 4.01 percent to 45.97 percent, Sebi said. Consequently, the market watchdog slapped a total fine of Rs 1 crore on the firm and also noted that certain violations are repetitive in nature.

Meanwhile, the regulator levied a fine of Rs 10 lakh on Jesudas Premkumar Sebastian for disclosure lapses in the matter of Acewin Agriteck Ltd. The order came after Sebi received a letter from BSE intimating that during the regulator's investigation, Sebastian was one of the promoters of Acewin Agriteck Ltd and had sold shares in multiple instances.

The investigation period was June-August 2021. In another order, the regulator imposed a penalty of Rs 5 lakh each on Rajesh Agarwal and Rajendra Kumar Pugalia HUF for indulging in non-genuine trades in illiquid stock options at BSE.

Separately, the regulator slapped a penalty of Rs 5 lakh on Nidhi Abhinav Aggarwal, Pushpa Rajkumar Thard, Rajkumar Manmal Thard, Anil Ratanlal Saraf, Nupur International Pvt Ltd, Dattaprasad Narhar Kulkarni and Ophelia Rodriques for disclosure lapses. In another order, the regulator levied a fine of Rs 5 lakh on Ram Minerals and Chemicals Ltd for disclosure lapses.