Securities & Exchange Board of India (SEBI) has seized Rs 53.67 crore from Asmita Patel Global School of Trading Pvt Ltd along with five other entities. Asmita Patel Global School of Trading Pvt Ltd is a well-known stock market training institute that offers online courses on stocks and trading. Some of its popular courses are “Let’s Make India Trade” (LMIT), “Master’s in Price Action Trading” (MPAT), and “Options Multiplier” (OM).
Jayesh Thakkar, a SEBI Registered Research Analyst shared a post on X (formerly Twitter) stating “SEBI has seized Rs 53.67 crore that Asmita Patel and five other related entities made illegally. Asmita Patel is also at risk of losing another Rs 104.6 crore it collected from course fees, which SEBI believes were part of unregistered advisory services.”
SEBI’’s action against Asmita Patel
The investigation was initiated by SEBI after receiving complaints from 42 participants of these courses. In addition to impounding the Rs 53.67 crore, SEBI has issued a show-cause notice questioning why Rs 104.6 crore, collected as fees for various programs, should not also be seized.
SEBI has sent an interim order directing the school, Asmita Jitesh Patel, and Jitesh Jethalal Patel to cease offering unregistered investment advisory and research analyst services. The entities have also been barred from accessing the securities market.
Asmita Patel accused of re-routing money
The order also uncovered that fees collected from participants were routed through entities such as King Traders (proprietor: Sagar Dhanjibhai), Gemini Enterprise (proprietor: Suresh Parmashivam), and United Enterprises (proprietor: Jigar Rameshbhai Dawada). SEBI stated that this was a regular practice and not an isolated incident, making all six entities jointly and severally liable for the Rs 53.67 crore earned from course fees.
The regulator further demanded that the notices explain why they should not be ordered to disgorge Rs 104.6 crore, along with interest. SEBI’s order noted that the fees collected for LMIT, MPAT, and OM courses, as well as other programs provided by the school, were earned under the guise of unregistered advisory and research analyst services.
The order reads, “The aforesaid amount includes not only the amount collected as fees by the Noticees for LMIT, MPAT and Options Multiplier (OM) courses but also includes the fees collected by the Noticees for the other courses offered by the Noticee no.1 (Asmita Patel Global School of Trading )through which it carried out unregistered investment advisory and research analyst services along with interest”.
Kamlesh Varshney, SEBI’s Whole-Time Member, highlighted in the order “Examination revealed that, prima facie, the Noticee no. 1 (Asmita Patel Global School of Trading) along with the Noticee no.2 (Asmita Jitesh Patel) and the Notice no.3 (Jitesh Jethalal Patel) devised a scheme wherein students/investors/participants were lured to trade in specific stocks and told to open trading account with ABC Ltd. Recommendations of buy/sell of specific securities were provided and uploaded on telegram channels owned by the Noticee no.1. The acts of the Noticee no.1 makes it evident that it was providing investment advice/ research analyst services to students/investors/participants for a consideration in the pretext of imparting education.”
