 "Life Insurance Corporation")
State-owned Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC) on Wednesday informed the exchanges that it has sacked an employee, who was banned by Securities & Exchange Board of India (Sebi) in a front-running case.
Markets regulator Sebi had last year found that Yogesh Garg, a dealer in LIC, was in possession of non-public information regarding impending orders of LIC and acted as an information carrier. He has also, prima facie, used the account of one late Ved Parkash Garg to trade on the basis of the non-public information of LIC.
According to the exchange note by LIC, “He (Yogesh Garg) has been removed from the services of the Corporation following the due administrative procedure by the disciplinary authority consequent to his involvement in the front running.”
The insurer added that it has a robust controlling monitoring mechanism along with best practices to prevent any kind of front running activity. All stringent measures for transactional hygiene of the dealing room are put in place, i.e., entry by biometric, CCTV coverage, restriction on electronic gadgets etc.
In April 2023, Sebi had barred five entities, including the employee of LIC, from the securities market and impounded illegal gains of Rs 2.44 crore made by them, in a case pertaining to front-running the trades of the state-owned insurer.
In its order, the Sebi had said, “The Interim Order was passed based on the prima facie conclusions to prevent further perpetration of fraudulent trading activity and to prevent defalcation of the wrongful gains cumulatively amounting to Rs 2.44 crore (as elaborated in the Interim Order).”
Sebi had named Yogesh Garg, who was working in the investment department of LIC, his mother Sarita Garg, his mother-in-law Kamlesh Agarwal, Ved Prakash and Sarita Garg. The five entities are connected through family relations, a common address and a common phone number.
