Now SEBI nails businessman Raj Kundra and Shilpa Shetty

Kundra, Shetty and Viaan have been fined for a three-year delay in the disclosure of an allotment of preferential shares.

Mumbai: Bad news continues unabated for embattled Raj Kundra and his actress wife Shilpa Shetty. Market regulator SEBI imposed a penalty of Rs 3 lakh on the couple and their company Viaan Industries for contravening insider trading rules.

Kundra, Shetty and Viaan have been fined for a three-year delay in the disclosure of an allotment of preferential shares.

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In 2015, Viaan Industries had made a preferential allotment of 500,000 equity shares. Of this 128,800 equity shares each were allotted to Kundra (referred to as Ripu Sudan Kundra) and Shetty, the promoters of the company.

According to SEBI’s Prohibition of Insider Trading Rules, 2015, the promoters had to disclose this transaction to the company within two days if it exceeded Rs 10 lakh in value. The company, in turn, has to relay this disclosure to the stock exchanges within two trading days.

In this case, SEBI said the value of the transaction was Rs 2.57 crore each and the disclosures pertaining to the 2015 transaction were made only in 2019. In reply to a notice from the regulator, Shetty and Kundra acknowledged the mistake and said it was not done with malafide intent.