SEBI lashes out at Deccan Chronicle

 A two-year ban on company promoters

A fine of Rs 8.2 crore

New Delhi, March 23: Deccan Chronicle Holdings Limited (DCHL) promoters have been slapped by Sebi, the capital markets regulator. The securities market has been banned from entering the country for one to two years for fraudulent activities, misinformation and violations of regulations. It also imposed fines of Rs 8.2 crore on the company and its individuals. In a recent order, SEBI said that DCHL had underperformed and acted fraudulently in its financial statements for the financial years 2008-09 to 2011-12. During the same period, DCHL was fined Rs 4 crore, promoters T Venkatramireddy, T Vinayak Ravireddy and PK Iyer were fined Rs 1.30 crore each. It also imposed a fine of Rs 20 lakh on N Krishnan and Rs 10 lakh on V Shankar. All of them made it clear that they would not buy or sell securities directly or indirectly during the prohibition period.

Based on the investigation,

It is learned that SEBI has been prosecuting DCHL from October 2011 to December 2012 for alleged involvement in insider trading, prohibition of fraudulent and unfair trade activities. It is in this order that action is now taken. SEBI said in its inquiry that it had concealed the details of the loans taken, interest payments and other charges which were not mentioned in the books of account. Outraged that the loan arrears were transferred to the Deccan Chronicle Marketers (DCM), thereby defrauding investors and shareholders. All in all, Venkatramireddy as DCHL chairman and Iyer as vice chairman announced that they had failed to handle transparent financial transactions.