Actor Arshad Warsi and his wife Maria Goretti Warsi are among the 31 companies that SEBI (Securities and Exchange Board of India) has barred from the financial market for misleading stocks through YouTube videos and selling them at inflated rates.
Nithin Kamath, the founder and CEO of discount brokerage Zerodha, responded to the regulator's ruling by saying that it should function as a strong warning. For manipulators, these schemes have become the simplest game in town, according to Kamath's tweet.
According to SEBI, these organisations were involved in a managed scheme to persuade unwary investors to purchase assets in Sadhna Broadcast, which caused an unusual rise in the scrip's price and ultimately led to the sale of shares at inflated rates, resulting in illegal profits at the expense of the new investors.
The decision was made as a result of complaints SEBI received about alleged price fixing and share unloading by particular businesses in the Sadhna Broadcast scrip. According to the complaints, false YouTube videos with misleading content were being shared to entice investors.
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These videos were allegedly supported by costly paid marketing campaigns for increased exposure. The aforementioned entities reportedly sold their holding at a premium once these naive investors entered the scrip. According to SEBI, fake and deceptive YouTube videos regarding the company were posted on the channels "The Adviser" and "Moneywise" in the second part of July 2022.
According to the report, these YouTube videos spread inaccurate and false facts to encourage investors to purchase Sadhna stock in the hopes of making huge profits. According to the regulator, these YouTube Channels had thousands of followers, and the deceptive YouTube videos attracted millions of visitors due to sponsored advertising promotions.
One of the false movies on these YouTube channels claimed that Gautam Adani's Adani Group would take over Sadhna Broadcast.
