Market regulator Sebi today imposed a penalty of Rs 75,000 on brokerage firm Senator Securities in a matter related to probe into the affairs of erstwhile Bank of Rajasthan (BoR) and its promoters. The brokerage firm had allegedly carried out trading for some clients who were related to the promoters of BoR and received payment for the trades from entities other than their clients. Sebi in its order said,". impose a penalty of Rs 75,000.against the noticee (Senator Securities) which will be commensurate with the violations committed by it." The matter relates to Sebi's investigation into the affairs of BoR for a period between June 2007 and December 2009. Later,BoR had been acquired by ICICI Bank. The probe revealed that BoR's then promoters,led by Pravin Kumar Tayal,along with some companies that were connected to him and his relatives,by way of their continuous disclosure publicly announced that their stake had come down from 44.2 per cent as on quarter ending June 2007 to 28.6 per cent as on quarter ending December 2009. However,it was alleged,though as per disclosure their holding seemed to have reduced,but in reality the holding of the promoters actually increased with the active collusion of front entities. Thus,the shareholding of the promoters of BoR with person acting in concert (PACs) had increased from 46.8 per cent in June 2007 to 63.15 per cent in December 2009. In the same case,Sebi had slapped a total fine of Rs 5.75 lakh on two brokerage firms- RR Chokhani Stock Brokers and Angel Broking last month for allegedly carrying out trading for some clients who were related to the promoters of BoR and received payment for the trades from entities other than their clients.
