Yogesh Garg's services terminated in front-running trades case, says LIC

Sebi on Tuesday confirmed a securities market ban on five entities, including an employee of Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC), in a case pertaining to front-running trades of the state-owned insurer.

Life Insurance Corporation (LIC) on Wednesday said it terminated services of Yogesh Garg against whom a confirmatory order issued by capital market regulator Sebi in front-running trades case. Front-running refers to an illegal practice in the stock market where an entity trades based on advanced information from a broker or analyst before the information has been made available to its clients.

Sebi on Tuesday confirmed a securities market ban on five entities, including an employee of Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC), in a case pertaining to front-running trades of the state-owned insurer. Following the order, LIC in a statement said, "It is informed that Yogesh Garg was an employee in the cadre of Administrative Officer of the LIC. He has been removed from the services of the Corporation following the due administrative procedure by the disciplinary authority consequent to his involvement in the front running."

LIC has a robust controlling monitoring mechanism along with best practices to prevent any kind of front running activity, the statement said. All stringent measures for transactional hygiene of dealing room are put in place, that is entry by biometric, CCTV coverage, restriction on electronic gadgets, etc, it said.

"LIC has always been in the forefront of being a compliant organisation and shall continue to strengthen further on all matters of Corporate Governance," it said. In a confirmatory order, Sebi clarified that the restraint imposed vide the interim order dated April 27, 2023, on Yogesh Garg, Sarita Garg, Kamlesh Agarwal, Ved Prakash HUF and Sarita Garg HUF from buying, selling or dealing in securities either directly or indirectly, in any manner whatsoever, shall continue until further orders.

In April 2023, Sebi barred five entities, including an employee of Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC), from the securities market and impounded illegal gains of Rs 2.44 crore made by them, in a case pertaining to front-running the trades of the state-owned insurer.