SEBI Bans Omaxe And Its Top Officials For Scrip Price Manipulation

The Securities and Exchange Board of India banned real estate firm Omaxe, its Chairman Rohtas Goel, Managing Director Mohit Goel and three others from the securities market for two years for irregularities in the company's financial statements.

The individuals are prohibited from "accessing the securities market and further prohibited from buying, selling or otherwise dealing in securities, directly or indirectly, or being associated with the securities market in any manner, whatsoever, for a period of two years", it said.

The others who have been barred from the securities markets are Sudhangshu S Biswal, Arun Kumar Pandey and Vimal Gupta.

Additionally, these five persons have been "prohibited from holding any position as Director or Key Managerial Person of any other listed company for a period of two years".

The regulator has also levied a fine totalling Rs 47 lakh on 16 entities, including these six entities. The penalties range from Rs 1 lakh to Rs 7 lakh and need to be paid within 45 days.

In its 126-page final order, SEBI said these entities have "acted in concert in order to execute a fraudulent scheme which they tried to portray as normal transactions for the benefit of the company although it was experiencing loss, while also trying to portray these as merely lending activities, thereby trying to maintain the price of the scrip of Omaxe for a period of three years''.

The markets regulator claimed that the company misrepresented their financial statements during FY19, FY20 and FY21 through its various items such as revenue, debtors, advances, and expenses.

"By the act of large-scale misrepresentation/misstatement/manipulation in financial statements by Omaxe, the scrip price was directly or indirectly manipulated to maintain the value of the collateral kept by the promoter against the loan," SEBI said.

The fraud was never disclosed to the shareholders of Omaxe, which misled them to remain invested in its shares or deal in its securities. Also misrepresentation of the books and accounts of Omaxe misled the investors in the securities market, it said.

The order came after SEBI received a complaint against Omaxe alleging that the company conducted fraudulent transactions, diverted/siphoned off funds, misrepresented the financial statements, and inflated turnover, among others.

As these allegations were serious in nature, the matter was taken up for further examination by SEBI, including a forensic audit into the affairs of Omaxe. The investigation period in the matter was taken from April 1, 2018 to March 31, 2021.

(With Inputs From PTI)