24 IPO operators are just go-between: Sebi

Roopalben Panchal and Purushottam Dudlani may be the publicly acknowledged bad guys, who pulled the multi-crore IPO scam on unsuspecting market players, but there are bigger bandicoots around,
says market regulator Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi).

While naming Roopalben and Purushottam among the 24 key operators, who cornered a major share of retail portion of 105 IPOs through off-market transactions, the regulator, in its interim order on the scam, concluded that they were not the ultimate beneficiaries.

"As per the data obtained from NSDL and CDSL, it was seen that the 24 key operators had in turn made off-market transfers to various entities during the pre-listing period," Sebi said.

It can be reasoned that the transfers were made by the operators to their financiers, said Sebi.

"Since the financiers have received the shares from the key operators it would appear that these financiers are the ultimate beneficiaries of the IPO abuse," the regulator said, while banning these 'money-lenders' too from trading in the stock market.

Sebi said the likes of Roopalben Panchal and Purushottam Dudlani were nothing but intermediaries for their financiers, "who appear to be the ultimate beneficiaries."