New Delhi, Nov 6: An individual on Friday settled with markets regulator Sebi a case related to alleged leak of Wipro Ltd unpublished financial result on WhatsApp, by paying over Rs 27 lakh towards settlement charges.
Sebi observed from a newspaper article that unpublished financial results of some major companies were posted on a private WhatsApp group prior to their announcement by the companies. Wipro was among those companies whose information was leaked allegedly on the WhatsApp group.
Sebi, thus, conducted an investigation and observed that the individual -- Govind Agarwal -- sent the information to another individual on WhatsApp.
Advertisement
Agarwal was working as a research analyst and as part of his job, he was required to attend the quarterly conference calls, analyse the results and prepare research reports, the settlement order noted.
"The financial figures of Wipro communicated on WhatsApp, before the disclosure of same on the stock exchanges by Wipro, were within a range of 0.03 per cent to 0.47 per cent of the actuals," it added.
By circulating the unpublished price-sensitive information, Agarwal allegedly violated the Prohibition of Insider Trading norms.
Pending the proceedings, Agarwal filed a settlement application with Sebi without accepting or denying the guilt.
Advertisement
The high-powered advisory committee of Sebi considered the settlement terms and recommended the case for settlement upon payment of Rs 27.89 lakh.
The amount, after the approval of a panel of whole-time members of Sebi, was remitted by Govind Agarwal on October 26, 2020.
Just one email a week