Arshad Warsi, banned by SEBI, says 'zero knowledge about stocks’

Actor Arshad Warsi with his wife Maria Goretti.

Actor Arshad Warsi, under SEBI's scrutiny for profiting from a share pump-and-dump operation, has denied any wrongdoing, urging his social media followers not to "believe everything you read in the news".

The Munna Bhai MBBS actor and his wife, former TV host Maria Goretti, allegedly made over Rs 66 lakh in profits and were named as volume creators in an order pertaining to a YouTube-run share pump-and-dump operation.

The case involves channels run by a man named Manish Mishra, who was allegedly part of a larger nexus manipulating the share prices of Sadhna Broadcast Limited and Sharpline Broadcast.

The YouTube channels allegedly provided misleading news, recommending investors to buy Sadhna stocks for extraordinary profits.

Warsi claimed he had and his wife had "zero knowledge about stocks" themselves

"We took advice and invested in Sharda, and like many other, lost all our hard earned money," he tweeted.

Please do not believe everything you read in the news. Maria and my knowledge about stocks is zero, took advice and invested in Sharda, and like many other, lost all our hard earned money.

— Arshad Warsi (@ArshadWarsi) March 2, 2023

On Twitter, users pointed out how the actor even got the company's name wrong.

Warsi, Goretti and the others involved in the scam have been ordered to deposit the profits they earned with a scheduled bank in 15 days, with a lien created in favour of SEBI.

They have also been banned from the stock market.