Sucheta Dalal :SEBI's ban on Jermyn Capital continues till Nov 2010
Sucheta Dalal

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SEBI's ban on Jermyn Capital continues till Nov 2010   

June 26, 2009

 

Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) said the restrictions imposed on Jermyn Capital LLC (JL) restraining the company from accessing the Indian securities market and from buying, selling and dealing in securities in the Indian market will continue till 30th November 2010.
 
However the order from SEBI said the revised timeline debarring Jermyn from dealing in the securities market is subject to the Supreme Court orders dated 5th December 2008, and 14th May 2009.
 
Earlier in 2007 the market regulator, while dismissing an appeal of JL, had said that the appellant was not a fit and proper person because Hugh Hamilton Andrews who managed the operations of the appellant was a close associate of Dharmesh Doshi who was a close associate of Ketan Parekh, a key accused in the stock market scam of 2001. SEBI said since Doshi and Parekh did not enjoy a good reputation, it was legitimate to infer that Andrews too did not enjoy a good reputation.
 
Doshi was director of Ketan Parekh entity Triumph International Finance (India) Ltd (TIFIL) and was also director of Jermyn Capital Partners Plc, (Jermyn plc) a 100% subsidiary of TIFIL.
 
SEBI said its investigations revealed that JL and Jermyn Plc were connected and Mihir Kapadia was on the board of both the entities and also a shareholder of JL, earlier known as Triumph Securities UK Plc.
 
Kapadia sold his entire holding in JL to Andrews on 1st June 2008 and resigned from both JL and Jermyn Plc on 1st June 2008 and 31 March 2008, respectively. Similarly, from 30th November 2008, Doshi also called off his association with JL.
Taking into consideration these two facts SEBI in its latest order on 23rd June 2009 observed that even after the person severs the association, there should be a moratorium before he can be considered fit and proper again. It said the ban on JL will continue till expiry of two years from the cessation of association between Jermyn Capital Partners Plc/JL and Dharmesh Doshi.
 
In January 2006, the market regulator debarred Jermyn Capital, a sub-account of the foreign institutional investor Taib Bank EC from accessing and dealing in securities in the market till further notice.
 
Later the Securities Appellate Tribunal (SAT) turned down JL's appeal against SEBI order in September 2006 and also dismissed JL's review petition in March 2007.
 
In 2008, JL filed two civil appeals before the Supreme Court, which also dismissed both the appeals and referred the matter to SEBI with a request to dispose of the appeal within six months. - Yogesh Sapkale [email protected]

-- Sucheta Dalal