capital market regulator sebi has given a big blow to fugitive liquor businessman Vijay Mallya. SEBI has banned Mallya from the stock markets and has barred him from associating with any listed company for 3 years. SEBI has taken this action in the case of sending money to the Indian securities market using foreign bank accounts with UBS AG. The Indian government is trying to extradite Mallya from Britain to face charges of fraud related to his now closed company Kingfisher Airlines. Mallya has been living in Britain since March 2016.
Wrongly invested money in Indian market
The Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) in its probe spanning the period January 2006 to March 2008 found that Mallya used foreign institutional investor (FII) Matterhorn Ventures to secretly trade shares of his group companies – Herbertson Limited and United Spirits Limited (USL). For this, funds were sent through various foreign accounts. Former liquor baron Mallya used Matterhorn Ventures to invest money in the Indian securities market through various accounts with UBS AG. He used various foreign entities to hide his real identity.
Mallya hid his identity
The Sebi order said Matterhorn Ventures was wrongly listed as a non-promoter public shareholder in Herbertson while its 9.98 per cent shareholding was in the promoter category. “In this case, the noticee (Mallya) used his foreign related companies through the FII route to trade in the Indian securities market in defiance of his identity and regulatory norms,” Sebi chief general manager Anita Anoop said in her 37-page order.
Mallya committed fraud and deception
In this way, he planned to indirectly trade in the shares of his own group companies through multi-layered transactions.” He said that this act of Mallya is not only fraudulent and deceptive, but also a threat to the integrity of the securities market. In such a situation, SEBI has barred Mallya from accessing the securities market. He has been barred from joining any listed firm for three years.
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