According to SEBI’s investigation, the notices had transacted in the same scrips as the Big Client family, prior to the large orders, thereby earning unfair profits. | Photo credit: REUTERS/FRANCIS MASCARENHAS
The Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) has imposed sanctions on 13 individuals and entities for entering into front-running trades based on non-public information relating to a major investor called the ‘Big Client’.
The regulator has imposed fines ranging from ₹5 lakh to ₹15 lakh and barred the entities from accessing the securities market for one to three years.
According to SEBI’s investigation, the notices had transacted in the same scrips as the Big Client family, prior to the large orders, thereby earning unfair profits.
The regulator noted a sharp increase in their intraday and square-off profits during the survey period, which fell sharply after SEBI inquired with the Big Client in June 2022.
In an 82-page order, SEBI judge Santosh Shukla noted that the case was “a classic example of distancing myself from my husband through the husband, using the husband’s account or HUF’s account, and culminating in the final denouement in which related parties with all their manipulative assembly came to the fore and put a seal on their machinations of fraudulent, manipulative and deceptive transactions on behalf of those traders. who traded or caused to be traded in the scrips based on the non-public information about impending orders from the Big Client.”
He said several suspects gave the main conspirator permission to use their accounts or acted on his advice, often through the accounts of their spouses or the Hindu Undivided Family (HUF).
The highest penalty of ₹15 lakh was imposed on Chaitali Shah, followed by ₹12 lakh each on Shah Swapnil Uday HUF and Piyush Mehta HUF. Others, including Shankar Tukaram Vadatkar, Dipesh Mehta HUF and Hansraj Randhir Shah HUF, were fined ₹10 lakh each. The remaining entities were penalized between ₹5 lakh and ₹8 lakh.
SEBI said the trading pattern under the notices reflected clear coordination and misuse of confidential information, which undermined market integrity and fairness. The reluctant parties are allowed to liquidate open derivative positions within three months, but cannot sell assets except to pay the fines.
Published on October 24, 2025
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