Mumbai: SEBI on Friday banned 59 entities, including actor Arshad Warsi, his wife Maria Goretti, from the market for up to 5 years. The move is related to misleading videos on YouTube channels - like Moneywise, The Advisor and Profit Yatra - luring investors to buy TV channel Sadhna Broadcast's shares. The markets regulator fined the couple Rs 10 lakh, and they will have to disgorge illegal gains worth Rs 92 lakh from the stock price manipulation.

Warsi and his wife Goretti played a role in promoting the stock of Sadhna (now Crystal Business System) through videos on YouTube, which were uploaded by one of the masterminds of the scheme.

In its 109-page order, SEBI whole-time member Ashwani Bhatia stated that the way the whole incident played out painted "a disturbing picture regarding the increasing use of social media platforms, which have immense reach and influence in the digital age, as tools for market manipulation". SEBI ordered disgorgement of illegal gains totalling about Rs 58 crore and imposed fines of up to Rs 5 crore on the entities. The overall conduct of the people involved in the scheme revealed a classic pump-and-dump scheme, the report said.

"The price was systematically pushed upward through collusive trading, followed by aggressive promotional activity to draw in retail investors, and finally, a coordinated sell-off by the promoters. Retail investors, misled by this staged market activity, were left holding the shares at distorted valuations once the manipulators, including the promoters, exited," the report said.

SEBI found that three individuals, Gaurav Gupta, Rakesh Kumar Gupta, and Manish Mishra, were the masterminds. Subhash Aggarwal, a director with Skyline Financial Services, the registrar & transfer agent of Sadhna Broadcast, was the middleman. These individuals "were the central characters who planned and executed the manipulative scheme", SEBI said.

Modus Operandi: First, the entities executed trades among themselves to steadily inflate the price of the scrip and create a false appearance of market interest. Second, misleading promotional videos were disseminated across YouTube channels operated by Manish Mishra.

Mumbai: In-vitro fertilisation (IVF) isn't the sort of thing that typically seeds the fecund imagination of Bollywood-albeit not so fertile lately, with hits having become sparse. Still, director Vikram Bhatt was brave enough to tackle the sensitive subject in Tumko Meri Kasam, starring Anupam Kher and Esha Deol, which was released last week. Critics didn't like it too much though and, apparently, neither has the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI).

Regulatory objections about the film's alleged role in promoting the company and the timing of its release have forced the unexpected deferral of the Rs. 3,500-crore public offering of EQT-backed Indira IVF Hospital, said people with knowledge of the matter.

The film is a Bollywood-style biopic on Ajay Murdia, who founded Indira IVF in Udaipur and built it up into a chain of fertility clinics. Murdia's sons are credited as the film's producers. Bhatt is also the writer of the film.

Following SEBI's objections, Indira IVF was forced to withdraw its draft red herring prospectus (DRHP), putting a halt to what was set to be one of the biggest healthcare IPOs of the year, said the people cited above.

SEBI and Indira IVF did not respond to ET's emailed queries.

However, those close to the company said the initial public offering has been temporarily withdrawn considering market conditions and that papers will be refiled once the primary market revives.

Indira IVF filed draft papers with SEBI last month via the confidential pre-filing route.

The regulator is said to have raised concerns over potential violations of disclosure norms and fair market practices, fearing the film's release could act as indirect promotional material influencing investor sentiment ahead of the IPO, said people aware of the development.

Last year, EQT acquired a controlling stake in Indira IVF from TA Associates and the company's founders, Ajay Murdia and his sons Kshitiz and Nitiz.

Indira IVF was looking to tap the public markets amid growing demand for fertility treatments in India. The company, founded in 2011, has emerged as a leader in the space, operating over 150 centres with 330 specialists across India.

With the IPO now shelved, Indira IVF will have to reassess its fundraising strategy, either by refiling with SEBI at a later stage or exploring alternative funding options.

Made on a budget of Rs. 12 crore, the film has collected Rs. 54 lakh in five days, according to trade analysts. The nearly three-hour film is styled as an entertainer, with special effects and a court battle thrown into the mix to heighten the dramatic tension. The Tumko Meri Kasam soundtrack features seven songs with titles like Ishqaa Ishqaa, Zara Paas Aana and Tere Dum Se.

Director Bhatt would have set things in motion with the words lights, camera, action. SEBI seems to have said cut.

SEBI on Thursday barred 31 entities, including actor Arshad Warsi, his wife Maria Goretti and promoters of Sadhna Broadcast from the market. The move is related to misleading videos on YouTube channels — ‘The Advisor’ and ‘Moneywise’ — luring investors to buy the TV channel’s shares.

Sadhna’s promoters who have been restrained from the market are Shreya Gupta, Gaurav Gupta, Saurabh Gupta, Pooja Aggarwal and Varun Media. The regulator has impounded illegal gains of Rs 41. 9 crore made after the videos were uploaded. SEBI noted that Warsi (who played ‘Circuit’ in the film ‘Munnabhai MBBS’) made gains of Rs 29.40 lakh, while his wife profited by Rs 37.60 lakh.

The order came after SEBI received complaints that alleged there was price manipulation and offloading of shares (also known as pump-and-dump) by certain entities in the Sadhna scrip.

Subsequent to the release of the videos, there was an increase in the price and trading volume of the Sadhna scrip. In this period, certain promoter shareholders, key management personnel of Sadhna, and nonpromoter shareholders offloaded a significant part of their holdings at inflated prices and booked profits.

One of the misleading videos on these YouTube channels was that Sadhna Broadcast is going to be taken over by Adani Group. Another video claimed a large US corporation has entered into a contract to produce four devotional movies.

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Mumbai: The Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) on Thursday came down heavily on YouTube channel creators for manipulating stocks of listed companies by engaging in a “pump and dump” schemes.

The regulator in two separate orders barred 55 entities including actors Arshad Warsi and his wife Maria Goretti from the securities market for alleged price manipulation through YouTube and subsequently offloading the inflated shares of Sadhna Broadcast and Sharpline Broadcast.

SEBI said a nexus of 31 players made unlawful gains of Rs. 41.85 crores in Sadhna Broadcast case, while 24 players have allegedly gained Rs. 12.14 crores in Sharpline Broadcast, which it has directed to be impounded.

Arshad Warsi and his wife made a profit of Rs. 29.43 lakhs and Rs. 37.56 lakhs, respectively. SEBI has termed the roles of them in the scheme as ‘volume creator’ and ‘profit maker’.

The regulator said it received certain complaints alleging that misleading YouTube videos with false content, backed by a large marketing campaign for additional reach, were being uploaded to lure investors. Once these unsuspecting investors entered the stock, the said entities allegedly offloaded their holding at an inflated price.

These entities would upload false and misleading news about the said companies on the video streaming platform. These channels were — Moneywise, The Advisor, MidCap Calls and Profit Yatra.

SEBI said these YouTube channels had lakhs of subscribers and the YouTube videos had crores of viewership aided by promotion through paid advertising campaigns. Subsequently, the misleading YouTube videos ceased to be available for public viewing, SEBI said.

The regulator alleged that two YouTube channels The Advisor and Moneywise uploaded videos on Sadhna in July 2022. In the case of Sharpline, Midcapcalls and ProfitYatra had uploaded

videos in May 2022.

These YouTube videos “peddled false and misleading news”, recommending investors should buy these stocks for extraordinary profits, said the regulator Subsequent to the release of the YouTube videos, there was an increase in the price and trading volume of the Sadhna shares, according to SEBI.

The volumes appear to have been contributed by large number of retail investors likely influenced by the misleading YouTube videos, it said.

Amid the pick-up in trading volumes, certain promoter shareholders, key management personnel of Sadhna, and non-promoter shareholders who held more than 1% of shareholding in Sadhna offloaded a significant part of their holdings at inflated prices and booked profits, the regulator said.

The regulator also observed that the videos contained false and deceptive statements about the growth story and future prospects of the company. The videos recommended investors to buy the scrip to earn substantial profits.

Disabling the comments section on the YouTube Channels, prima facie appears to be an attempt to avoid any negative counter view to the messages disseminated through the YouTube videos, SEBI said.

“…the elaborate modus operandi adopted by the Noticees, including the egregious misuse of patently false and misleading YouTube videos, had led to drastic increase in the number of small shareholders (i. e. , from 2,167 to 55,343 shareholders) who ended up buying shares from the Noticee Net Sellers and Volume creators at inflated prices,” the regulator said in its order.