Sebi bans Sadhna Broadcasts promoters, actor Arshad Warsi, others from securities market

Sebi on Thursday barred 31 entities, including actor Arshad Warsi, his wife Maria Goretti and promoters of Sadhna Broadcast from the securities market in a case related to uploading misleading videos on YouTube channels recommending investors to buy the company's shares.

The company's promoters who have been restrained from the securities market for their involvement are -- Shreya Gupta, Gaurav Gupta, Saurabh Gupta, Pooja Aggarwal and Varun Media.

In addition, the regulator has impounded illegal gains to the tune of Rs 41.85 crore made by the entities after misleading videos were uploaded on YouTube channels.

Sebi noted that Arshad Warsi has made a profit of Rs 29.43 lakh and his wife has earned a profit of Rs 37.56 lakh.

The order came after Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) received certain complaints wherein it was alleged that there was price manipulation and offloading of shares by certain entities in the scrip of television channel Sadhna Broadcast.

The complaints alleged that misleading YouTube videos with false content about the company were uploaded to lure investors.

Following this, the regulator conducted an examination during April-September 2022 and found a spurt in the price and volume of scrip of Sadhna between April and mid-July 2022.

During the second half of July 2022, false and misleading videos about Sadhna were uploaded on two YouTube channels -- "The Advisor" and "Moneywise".

These YouTube videos peddled false and misleading news to recommend that investors should buy the Sadhna stock for extraordinary profits, Sebi said in its interim order.

Subsequent to the release of the misleading YouTube videos, there was an increase in the price and trading volume of the Sadhna scrip.

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

During this period, certain promoter shareholders, key management personnel of Sadhna, and non-promoter shareholders offloaded a significant part of their holdings at inflated prices and booked profits.