Sebi slaps Rs 90 lakh fine on 6 entities for fraudulent trades

Sebi today imposed a total penalty of Rs 9000000 on six entities for alleged fraudulent dealings in shares of Rich Universe Network and not furnishing requisite information asked by the market regulator.According to Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi), the entities which were connected to each other and with Rich Universe, had traded in the company's shares in a fraudulent and manipulative manner by indulging in circular/ reversal trades in 2010.In its order, Sebi has slapped cumulative fine of Rs 9000000 on six entities--Cityon Infrastructure, Nirbharant Management Consultants, Bansal Supplier, Big Brokers House Stocks Ashesh Agarwal and Sanjeev Agarwal for alleged fraudulent dealing and not furnishing the requisite information asked by the regulator.Sebi had conducted a probe into the alleged irregularity in trading of shares of Rich Universe (earlier known as Rich Capital and Financial Services) for the period February 1 to September 24, 2010.During the probe period, the shares of the firm opened at Rs 56.75 on February 01, 2010, reached a high of Rs 119.90 on September 02, 2010 and closed at Rs 111.80 on September 24, 2010 with abnormal volume.Sebi alleged that the six entities had entered into off market transactions in large quantities of the company's shares and executed reversal /circular/synchronised trading among themselves in the market thereby created artificial volume and false /misleading appearance of trading.They also executed synchronised trades at incrementally higher prices to create artificial price rise in the scrip of Rich Universe Network Limited , it said.