Zerodha CEO Nithin Kamath on Saturday, December 7, cited two recent orders by the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) to remind investors about an ‘old saying’ regarding how taking shortcuts to earn quick bucks in the stock markets is “the surest way to lose money”.
Kamath took to X to share details about ‘two different scams’ with his more than 6.82 lakh followers on the social media platform.
“SEBI recently passed two orders related to two different scams. In the first scam, an SME company raised ₹44 crores through an SME-IPO to buy software, among other things. But, the company that it was buying software from was a shell company complete with fake financials and a fake list of clients,” Kamath wrote.
“The second order was against a popular finfluencer who collected ₹17 crores by selling courses, seminars, etc. This just proves that old saying: if something is too good to be true, it almost always is. Taking shortcuts to make a quick buck is the surest way to lose money in the markets,” he added.
Kamath seems to be referring to the SEBI action against the newly listed Trafiksol ITS Technologies. The market regulator on Tuesday, December 3, ordered Trafiksol ITS Technologies to refund the money paid by investors towards subscribing to its IPO. Further, the company was directed to return the interest amount accrued on the money to those investors, who were allotted its shares in the IPO.
The BSE SME IPO was launched on September 10 to raise ₹44.87 crore. The issue was oversubscribed 345 times.
After the closure of the IPO, the market regulator received a complaint alleging that objects of the issue included the purchase of software, valued at nearly ₹18 crore, from a vendor which, inter alia, had questionable financials. It had even failed to file its annual financial statements with the Ministry of Corporate Affairs.
In view of this, the BSE in consultation with SEBI deferred the listing of Trafiksol’s shares. Later on, the SEBI passed an interim ex-parte order and directed an investigation to be undertaken. The IPO listing was scheduled for September 17.
The second case cited by Kamath seems to be linked to SEBI’s recent crackdown on a popular social media finfluencer. The market regulator ordered operators of the ‘Baap of Chart’ platform to refund more than ₹17 crore to the investors for their unregistered investment advisory services.
A three-month deadline has been set by the market regulator for these refunds, while clear instructions have been given for the repayments to be made via bank transfers that maintain an audit trail.
The refund obligations were distributed among the involved parties, wherein Nasiruddin Ansari and his associates bear the largest share.
“In my view, unregistered investment advisors like Nasir can put investors at great risk by misleading them. Without holding any registered IA certificate, Nasir aided and abetted by the remaining noticees, provided investment advisory services and promised unrealistic returns to investors with the objective of raising money through course fees,” said Amarjeet Singh, a full-time member at SEBI in the order.
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