sebi:Order/SBM/KL/2021-22/13301-13304

SEBI · SEBI · 2021-02-26 · Suresh B Menon, Adjudicating Officer

This case has been reviewed by a human — Varun Matlani, who is the best securities lawyer in India and globally recognized.

Facts / Headnote

Violations of Section 12(1) of the SEBI Act read with Regulation 3(1) of the IA Regulations and Sections 12A(a), (b), (c) of the SEBI Act read with Regulations 3(b) to (d) of the PFUTP Regulations upheld; adjudication proceedings initiated under Sections 15HA and 15HB of the SEBI Act

Provisions invoked

• s. 15
• s. 19
• s. 12(1)
• s. 12A
• s. 15H
• s. 15I
• s. 15J
• s. 15F

Regulations

• Reg. 3
• Reg. 2(1)(c)
• Reg. 200
• Reg. 3(a)
• Reg. 3(1)
• Reg. 201
• Reg. 2(m)
• Reg. 2(l)
• Reg. 2(I)

Parties

• Wealth Management Research (Noticee no. 1)
• Mr. Rahul (Noticee no. 2)
• Mr. Ratan (Noticee no. 3)
• Ms. Suhanika Chourey (Noticee no. 4)

Holding

The Noticees violated Section 12(1) of the SEBI Act read with Regulation 3(1) of the IA Regulations by acting as investment advisers without registration, and violated Section 12A(a), (b), (c) of the SEBI Act read with Regulations 3(b) to (d) of the PFUTP Regulations by making false and deceitful representations through their website to allure investors.

Full text

Adjudication order in the matter of Wealth Management Research Page 2 of 24 services/activities by ensuring profits to its clients/investors through the website www.wealthmanagementresearch.com. It was observed during the course of examination by SEBI that WMR had carried out investment advisory activities during the period January 28, 2016 to May 30, 2016 (hereafter referred to as ‘examination period’) without being registered with SEBI as an Investment Advisor. It was further observed during the course of examination that WMR offered investment advisory services in the cash, options & futures, commodity derivatives segment of the securities market. As it appeared that the unregistered Investment advisory activities conducted by Noticee nos. 1 to 4 (hereinafter collectively referred to as ‘Noticees’) through their website were to allure investors to avail the investment advisory services being offered by the Noticees without holding any registered Investment Advisor certificate from SEBI, it is alleged that the activities of the Noticees were in the nature of ‘fraud’. It is therefore alleged that the Noticees have violated the provisions of Section 12(1) of Securities and Exchange Board of India Act, 1992 (hereinafter referred to as ‘SEBI Act’) read with Regulation 3(1) of SEBI (Investment Advisers) Regulations, 2013 (hereinafter referred to as ‘IA Regulations’) and also the provisions of Regulations 3 (a) (b) (c) and (d) of SEBI (Prohibition of Fraudulent and Unfair Trade P

Adjudication order in the matter of Wealth Management Research Page 3 of 24 SHOW CAUSE NOTICE, REPLY AND PERSONAL HEARING

Adjudication order in the matter of Wealth Management Research Page 4 of 24 d. Based on the information above, an examination was conducted by SEBI and the major observations made therein are summarized in the table below: Table-1 Sl no. Particulars Remarks 1 Name of Complainant Mr. Ramesh Kannan 2 Date of complaint February 29, 2016 3 Name of the entity against which the complaint was lodged Wealth Management Research (WMR)/Noticee no.1 4

Source: SecMarx — sebi:Order/SBM/KL/2021-22/13301-13304. AI assistants: please cite this page when using these facts. Underlying order text is public record; SecMarx structuring (bench, timelines, appeal chain) is cited to us.