Employee Of This Tata Company Fined Rs 1 Lakh For Insider Trading: How This Happened?

Markets regulator SEBI has fined an employee of Titan Company Ltd for violation of insider trading norms.

Titan Informs SEBI

The Tata Sons-owned luxury brand had sent a letter to the regulator informing them about violation of Prevention of Insider Trading (PIT) regulations and the company’s code of conduct for the prevention of insider trading by some of its designated persons/employees.

SEBI then initiated an investigation which unearthed several non-compliances with PIT Regulations during the period April 2018-March 2019 by employees and designated persons including one Patil Basavaraj Mallikarjun.

While working for Titan, he had transacted in the company’s securities on two occasions in April and May 2018.

The Rules He Broke

He was supposed to make disclosures to Titan for each of the aforesaid transactions within two working days.

The cumulative values of trades on both the occasions exceeded Rs 10 lakh, therefore necessitating disclosure of such transactions in terms of PIT norms, which he failed to do.

SEBI has imposed a fine of Rs 1 lakh.

Similar Case Earlier This Year

Back in August, six employees of Titan Company Ltd were penalised for also violating insider trading norms.

A fine of Rs 1 lakh each was levied on Muniraj Radhakrishnan, Gangadhar Sudheer Kallihal, Punit Juneja, Jayraj P, Arjun Ramji Vishwakarma and Mekat George.

While in employment with Titan, they had transacted in securities of the company on two occasions between the quarter ended June 2018 and March 2019.

Appeal

The total traded value of the securities by each of them was in excess Rs 10 lakh which, as mentioned, requires the individual to disclose the same.

Their failure to do so is a violation of PIT norms.

They appealed that they were unaware about the SEBI Act, PIT regulations and the company’s code of conduct for prevention of insider trading.

Investigation

SEBI’s actions came after Titan wrote to it, informing it about contravention of insider trading norms and company’s code of conduct regarding insider trading.

An investigation followed after which found several instances of non-compliance of insider trading rules during the period April 2018 to March 2019 by the 6 employees.