Ketan Parekh still active in market: Sebi

MUMBAI: Ketan Parekh (KP), the one-time big bull now banned by Sebi, is operating in the market through a web of associated entities. A Sebi investigation (which also draws from parallel investigations done by the income-tax department) into market activities of about 30 entities concluded that by channelling money through several layers of accounts and companies, KP paid Rs 26.4 crore to Madhavpura Mercantile Co-operative Bank (MMCB).About nine years ago, KP had borrowed money from MMCB for market manipulation and was subsequently ordered by the court to return the money to the bank.
The Sebi order has barred 26 entities from trading in the market. It has also referred the matter to Enforcement Directorate to investigate the money laundering angle in the whole web of transactions. As of now KP and about 10 related entities are banned from the market for 14 years.
The stocks in which these entities had executed synchronised deals are Cals Refineries, Confidence Petroleum, Bang Overseas, Shree Precoated Steels (now Ajmera Realty & Infra) and Temptation Foods. Sebi investigations showed some of the banned entities had indulged in off-market transactions to transfer shares to meet obligations. ������There were many instances where one connected client made off-market transfer to another connected client to enable the recipient to meet its market sale delivery obligations,'' the order noted.
Sebi found that banned parties had several calls among themselves during investigation. In one instance it was also found that five different entities had provided one single mobile number for unique client code records. ������Prima facie, the above discussions show connected clients were keeping in touch with each other through telephone calls /SMS during May 2008- May 2009 when they were dealing with each other in securities market in a synchronised manner and executing off-market transfers,��� the order noted.