RPL case: SAT quashes Sebi's order against Mukesh Ambani, Reliance

The Securities Appellate Tribunal (SAT) on Monday quashed the capital-market regulators order against the richest Asian, Mukesh Ambani, and his company Reliance Industries (RIL), Indias most-valued corporate, for their alleged role involving price-influencing trades in the Reliance Petroleum (RPL) stock in 2007...

The tribunal has set aside the Rs 25-crore penalty imposed by the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) on RIL, Rs 15 crore on Ambani, Rs 20 crore on Navi Mumbai SEZ and Rs 10 crore on Mumbai SEZ..

The regulator held that RIL had violated the Sebi Act and prohibition of fraudulent and unfair trade practices regulations by entering into an alleged well-planned operation with its appointed agents to earn undue profits from the sale of RPL shares in both the cash and the F&O segments...

3 and 4 by financing the monies were complicit and aided and abetted the manipulation of the trade executed by RIL through its 11 agents, SATs presiding officer Justice Tarun Agarwala and technical member Meera Swarup said in their order on Monday.. Sebi had taken an internal decision to await the Section 11B proceedings against RIL and its agents before taking further action in the matter...

The evidence that has been brought on record does not indicate that noticee nos. 3 (Navi Mumbai SEZ) and 4 (Mumbai SEZ )could have known in August / September 2007, namely, at the time of execution of the Facility Agreement that RIL would decide in end of October to sell the RPL shares or that RIL would take position in the November futures through its agents or that RIL would enter into agency agreements with the 12 agents or that RIL would trade in the last 10 minutes on November 29, 2007 in such a manner so as to suppress the price of the RPL shares, SAT said..

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