MUMBAI: Markets regulator Sebi has banned Zee group’s Subhash Chandra and Punit Goenka from the market for one year for fraudulently pledging Zee Entertainment Enterprises (ZEEL)’s land parcels in Hyderabad as a security for personal loans. Chandra has also been fined Rs 60 lakh, Goenka Rs 58 lakh and the company Rs 30 lakh for the fraudulent acts that were carried out in 2018.Late on Friday, Sebi’s 150-page order said that in Dec 2016, four privately held entities of the group had taken four separate loans aggregating Rs 726 crore. These companies were eventually controlled by Chandra and his family members.In Nov 2018, the lender asked for additional security covers for the four loans from the group’s companies. At this point, Chandra being the chairman of ZEEL, misused his position and authority in the company and handed over the original title deeds of the Hyderabad land parcel to the lender.
The land parcels were owned by ZEEL, a listed entity, and not by the private companies within the group. The original title deeds were handed over to the lender by falsely declaring that the said action had the approval of the company’s management, Sebi order said.“Through such actions, (Chandra) put the material asset of ZEEL at risk for his personal benefit. Being the chairman and (non-executive director) of a listed company this amounts to abuse of position and authority for personal benefit while risking the interest of the listed company and its shareholders,” the Sebi order said.The Sebi order also said that “at no time the true nature of the said transaction was disclosed and the whole incident was projected as a mere misplacing of the documents, despite the same becoming the subject matter of litigation and arbitration, further shows the absence of good faith and intention to hide the material interest of (Chandra) from the (company’s) stakeholders.”“Given the grave nature of the violations found in this order affecting the interest of the investors and the finding of fraud rendered,” Sebi found that Goenka and Chandra “also be visited with an appropriate period of debarment.”
