SEBI restrains Nusli Wadia, sons from share mkt for 2 yrs

MUMBAI: The Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) on Friday restrained industrialist Nusli Wadia, his sons Ness Wadia and Jehangir Wadia, and the company promoted by them — Bombay Dyeing and Manufacturing Company Limited (BDMCL) — from accessing the securities market and from buying, selling or otherwise dealing in securities for two years.

The firms’ parent company, the Wadia Group, said on Saturday all transactions had been conducted in compliance with the law, vowing to appeal the SEBI order and saying it “believes it would get justice and stand vindicated,” Reuters reported.

The others identified in the regulator’s statement were Scal Services Ltd, a Wadia Group company, its former directors D S Gagrat, N H Datanwala, Shailesh Karnik and R Chandrasekharan, and Durgesh Mehta, who was joint managing director and chief financial officer of Bombay Dyeing.

SEBI said it imposed fines totalling ₹157.5 million ($1.91 million) on the named parties for “being involved in a fraudulent scheme of misrepresenting the company’s financial statements”. The regulator said it had conducted a detailed investigation into the affairs of Bombay Dyeing from 2011-2012 and 2018-2019.

SEBI’s whole-time member Anant Barua has also imposed penalties of ₹5 crore on Jehangir Wadia, ₹4 crore each on BDMCL and Nusli Wadia, and ₹2 crore on Ness Wadia for deliberate misrepresentation of financial statements of BDMCL between 2011-12 and ’17-18.