Parekh sent off to 14-yr vanwas

<div class="section1"><div align="left" style="position:relative; left: -2"><table cellspacing="0" cellpadding="2" align="left" border="1" width="27.0%"> <colgroup> <col width="100.0%" /> </colgroup> <tr valign="top"> <td width="100.0%" colspan="1" rowspan="1" style="" valign:="" top="" background-color:="" f3f3f3=""> <div class="Normal"><img src="/photo/365567.cms" alt="/photo/365567.cms" border="0" /></div> </td> </tr> <tr valign="top"> <td width="100.0%" colspan="1" rowspan="1" style="" valign:="" top="" background-color:="" f3f3f3=""> <div class="Normal"><span style="" font-size:="">Ketan Parekh</span></div> </td> </tr> </table></div> <div class="Normal"><span style="" font-size:="" font-weight:="" bold="">MUMBAI: The stock market regulator, Sebi, has barred Ketan Parekh and several of his associates from the equity market for 14 years because of their role in manipulating stock prices from late 1999 till early 2001.</span><br /><br /><span style="" font-size:="" font-weight:="" bold="">The Securities and Exchange Board of India order, issued on Wednesday, is effective from December 12. Apart from Parekh,who was popularly referred to as ''KP'', the Sebi order also barred his brother Kartik and seven firms associated with him.</span><br /><br /><span style="" font-size:="" font-weight:="" bold="">The regulator said Ketan Parekh and related entities manipulated the prices of stocks ( see Table) through synchronised and circular trading as well as other non-genuine transactions which created artificial volumes. </span><br /><br /><span style="" font-size:="" font-weight:="" bold="">In addition, he also financed some of these stock transactions. During the course of the investigation, Sebi said it found that foreign brokerage firms Credit Suisse First Boston Securities CSFB) and Dresdner Kleinwort Benson Securities (DKB) helped Parekh and his firms manipulate prices. </span><br /><br /><span style="" font-size:="" font-weight:="" bold="">Sebi has already banned CSFB from operating in India since 2001, while DKB shut its India operations the same year. CSFB has disclosed to</span><br /><br /><span style="" font-size:="" font-weight:="" bold="">Sebi, under oath, that it had done synchronised trades with KP entities and at times under direct supervision of Parekh and his brother.</span></div> </div>