Sebi slaps Rs 33 crore fine on 13 entities earlier related to Sharepro Services

MUMBAI: Markets regulator Sebi on Friday slapped a fine of Rs 33 crore on 13 entities who were earlier associated with Sharepro Services, a register & transfer agent (RTA), to defraud investors of a host of companies and mutual funds like Asian Paints, Britannia, Kansai Nerolac, UTI and others.
These entities, including Govind Raj Rao, former MD of Sharepro Services and Indira Karkera, VP and the main operations person at the company, joined hands to illegally transfer shares and dividends intended for genuine shareholdersof these companies to entities closely linked to the RTA.For over a decade, they also falsified records to blur audit trails,Sebi investigations showed.
The 200-page order by Sebi pointed out that since lots of records were falsified and audit trails were erased, its investigators could pin down shares worth Rs 60.5 crore that were illegally transferred to entities connected through Sharepro Services. In addition, dividends worth another Rs 1.4 crore were also transferred to these entities through fraudulent means. However, the order pointed out that a large part of this ill-gotten money was withdrawn in cash and hence, the final recipients could not be pinned down.