sebi:WTM/AN/WRO/WRO/29357/2023-24

SEBI · SEBI · 2014-12-18 · Ananth Narayan G., Whole Time Member

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

Facts / Headnote

Certificate of registration INA000001134 suspended for one year

Regulations

• Reg. 3
• Reg. 16
• Reg. 17
• Reg. 15
• Reg. 3(a)
• Reg. 15(1)
• Reg. 4(2)(k)
• Reg. 27
• Reg. 15(9)
• Reg. 21

Parties

• Highbrow Market Research Private Limited

Holding

Highbrow Market Research Private Limited was found to have violated multiple provisions of the Investment Advisers Regulations, including providing misleading assurances of returns, manipulating risk profiles, charging unreasonable fees, failing suitability obligations, and failing to redress investor grievances. Its certificate of registration was suspended for one year.

Full text

__________________________________________________________________________________ Order in the Enquiry Proceedings against Highbrow Market Research Pvt. Ltd. Page 2 of 35 3.3. Highbrow has manipulated the risk profiles of its clients and has failed to abide by the principles of suitability; 3.4. Highbrow has charged unreasonable fees to its clients and has forcefully captured their card details; 3.5. Highbrow has failed to redress investor grievances.

__________________________________________________________________________________ Order in the Enquiry Proceedings against Highbrow Market Research Pvt. Ltd. Page 3 of 35 July 20, 2023. Highbrow was given a weeks’ time to reply to the SCN. However, no reply was received from Highbrow.

__________________________________________________________________________________ Order in the Enquiry Proceedings against Highbrow Market Research Pvt. Ltd. Page 4 of 35 including the MoUs, Payment receipts and email correspondence, clearly communicate to the client that the investments are subject to market risks and no assured profits are promised by the Noticee. 9.5. The term “Approachable Profit” cannot be taken as guaranteed and assured. The service tenure, which is mentioned in the receipt, refers to the original tenure of the package, which the clients have subscribed, but the company was still open to provide complementary services at no extra cost if it was required. It must be noted here that, the service tenure was to be extended “if required”. This shows the Noticee’s openness to continue to provide service in the larger interest of its customer. The same need not be read as any assurance of any nature. 9.6. The target profit / approachable profit are scientifically derived figures wherein various factors are taken into consideration. 9.7. The Noticee was free to charge the fees as per its own merits. The only rider on the fees to be charged was that it was expected to be reasonable. Nothing is produced on record to show that the said fees are unreasonable. 9.8. It is requested that the call recordings submitted by the complainants should not be taken as evidence as the same appears to be bogus and manufactured. As the original call records of the Noticee are no

Source: SecMarx — sebi:WTM/AN/WRO/WRO/29357/2023-24. 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.