Insider trading: SEBI bans Infosys, Wipro employees from securities market

According to the September 27 order of SEBI, the accused have been identified as Rami Choudhary of Infosys and Keyur Manair of Wipro. The market regulator has also directed for confiscation of illegal proceeds. ₹2.62 crores.

The market regulator’s alert system generated insider trading alerts for Infosys shares, in the wake of the corporate announcement about Infosys’ strategic partnership with Vanguard.

The transaction details were UPSI and the UPSI period was from June 29, 2020 to July 14, 2020.

Choudhary, Head of Solutions Design, Infosys, who was directly/indirectly involved with the Vanguard deal, is a connected person and was expected to have access to UPSI and was prima facie in possession of UPSI on a probabilistic basis.

Maniyar, who is currently serving as Senior VP and Country Head (MD) with Wipro, is joined by Ramit.

Keyur had traded in the shares of Infosys in the F&O segment just before the announcement of the Vanguard deal and immediately after the announcement, subsequently offloaded/ squared off his position in such a way that the net position was zero.

Therefore, he prima facie violated the prohibition of insider trading rules. income of ₹2,62,30,620 were generated through insider trading activities.

The order stated that such trading practices were not normal and therefore both have violated SEBI’s Prohibition of Insider Trading Act 2015.

It further said: “It is necessary for the investors to take preventive instructions against them to prevent the imminent danger that in future Ramit and Keyur may procure/communicate/misuse the UPSIs belonging to various companies through their personal, social and corporate networks.” may continue to engage in similar practices, including, but not limited to, Wipro; and various other companies playing different roles.”

with agency input