Journalist among 230 barred by SEBI for forgery to rig stock

The Securities and Exchange Board of India today passed an interim order barring two promoters of publicly listed entertainment company....

The Securities and Exchange Board of India today passed an interim order barring two promoters of publicly listed entertainment company Pyramid Saimira Theatre Ltd,and 228 others,for allegedly forging a letter and passing it off as a Sebi order in December 2008 to manipulate the companys stock resulting in substantial losses to investors.

Key to the alleged conspiracy,according to todays Sebi order,is the forged letter asking one of the promoters P S Saminathan,chairman and managing director of Pyramid Saimira,to make an open offer for an additional 20 per cent stake at a price not less than Rs 250. The order says that the other promoter Nirmal Kotecha had sold over 15 lakh shares on Monday,December 22,the day some newspapers published a story based on the forged letter.

In its order,Sebi said that Rakesh Sharma,then an executive with public relations firm Adfactors PR Pvt Ltd and Rajesh Unnikrishnan,Assistant Editor,The Economic Times,a business daily belonging to the Bennett Coleman & Co Ltd,played a key role in the forgery,dissemination of information and misleading the media to believe its authenticity.

Kotecha,the order says,even propped up an imposter who posed as Company Secretary and confirmed the forged letter to reporters who called up to check.

When asked for his comment,Rahul Joshi,Executive Editor,The Economic Times,said: We have seen the order. We are studying it.

According to the Sebi order,tower location of mobile telephones used by Sharma,Kotecha (registered in the name of one Amol Kokane) and Unnikrishnan indicated the three met on December 20,around the time when the forged letter was circulated to the media. Sharma,whose service was terminated by the PR firm the very next day (Tuesday,December 23),had in a statement to Sebi which he later retracted,also admitted that Unnikrishnan and he went to Kotechas residence to mail the forged letter to media friends.

Once the market regulator issued a press statement that it had not issued any such letter on December 23,Sharma was terminated from his service by the PR firm,which never had Pyramid as a client.

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The other significant part of the plot,the order said,was the attempt to ensure by the trio to not just disseminate the forged letter to the media,but also make the media believe its authenticity. Sharma,who has been a business journalist earlier,used the services of two former journalists Dheer Kothari and Ashok Jainani to spread the information,Sebi said.

When a reporter sought to ascertain the veracity of the information in the forged letter,Kotecha sent the number of one Ganesan working in the companys Chennai office to Sharma by SMS. When the reporter got back stating that the contents were denied by Ganesan,Kotecha provided another telephone number,purportedly of Pyramid Saimiras Company Secretary Kanhucharan Sahu to Sharma,the order said based on the latters statement to Sebi.

Unnikrishnan too provided the contact details to Sharma,the order said. When reporters called this number,the person,one Pratheesh Kumar V.K. an imposter,according to the order confirmed that the company had received the letter.