Market watchdog Sebi today barred Noida-based Unickon Securities and its directors from the securities market for violating various stock broker norms.
The Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) has received a large number of complaints from the clients of Unickon Securities for non-receipt or delay in payment of funds and accordingly advised the company to resolve complaints expeditiously.
The regulator undertook an inquiry into the matter and conducted an on-site inspection of the stock broking and depository participant operations of the company in March this year with a focus on investor grievance redressal mechanism.
"...The continuance of the noticees (Unickon Securities and its directors) in the stock market will adversely affect the interest of the investors and will have long term impact on the integrity of the securities market," the Sebi said.
Accordingly, in an oder passed today, the Sebi has confirmed "the directions issued in respect of Unickon Securities Private Limited, Gajendra Nagpal and Ram Mohan Gupta vide ex-parte ad interim order dated May 26, 2014."
The Sebi, through an interim order in May, had prohibited Unickon Securities, Nagpal and Gupta from accessing the capital market and had restrained them from buying, selling or dealing in securities market either directly or indirectly with immediate effect, till further directions.
The market watchdog, prima facie, found that Unickon Securities violated various norms including non-redressal of investor grievances pertaining to "non-receipt of funds /securities by clients."
It said that funds were raised by Unickon Securities by pledging the securities of its clients/investors illegally and these were purportedly diverted to its other businesses.
Also, Unickon Securities did not have any system for internal audit and failed to submit the internal audit report for the half year ending September 2013 onwards to NSE and BSE.
The Sebi said the "securities lying with the depositories in the demat account of Unickon Securities should be transferred to the demat account of the defaulter Committee of NSE maintained by the National Securities Clearing Corporation Ltd (NSCCL) and utilised for the purpose of settlement of pending claims of the clients of USPL."
"...Such approach would be in the interest of the investors whose claims are pending against Unickon Securities," it added.
