The Enforcement Directorate on Tuesday arrested former NSE CEO and MD Ravi Narain in a money laundering case, officials said. His role is being investigated by the federal probe agency as part of two criminal cases linked to the bourse - the alleged co-location 'scam' case and the purported illegal phone tapping of employees. Narain is understood to have been arrested in the tapping case under the criminal sections of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).
A Delhi court on Wednesday sent former MD and CEO of National Stock Exchange Ravi Narain to two days' custodial interrogation by Enforcement Directorate in a money laundering case related to alleged illegal phone tapping and snooping on stock exchange employees. Special Judge Sunena Sharma allowed ED's plea seeking Narain's custody till September 9 after the accused was produced before him by the probe agency. ED's Special Public Prosecutor N K Matta told the court that Narain was required to be confronted with other accused persons and evidence in the matter to unearth the larger conspiracy in the matter.
NSE Vice Chairman Ravi Narain has put in his papers amid regulators intensifying their probe into alleged lapses in high-frequency trading offered through the exchange's 'co-location' facility.
In May 2019, Sebi had penalised the NSE as well as two of its former heads - Narain and Chitra Ramkrishna - for allowing Sampark to provide the dark fibre connectivity to stock brokers, despite not having the authorised licence. Dark fibre refers to an unused optical fibre used for high-speed connectivity.
The Enforcement Directorate has filed a money laundering complaint against ex-Mumbai Police Commissioner Sanjay Pandey and former NSE top bosses Chitra Ramkrishna and Ravi Narain in connection with the illegal phone tapping and snooping case of employees of the stock exchange, officials said Thursday. The federal probe agency filed the case under criminal sections of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), a week after the CBI booked them.
The Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) is mulling changes to the 'fit & proper' criteria for market infrastructure institutions (MIIs), such as stock exchanges, in a bid to segregate the role of an individual from the entity, said sources. Under the current framework, wrongdoing by senior personnel could lead to a debarment of the MIIs such as stock exchanges, depository participants and clearing members-with quite a few such instances in the past. Additionally, Sebi is also mulling to introduce a clause through which any order passed against an MII will not affect their operations, unless it is specifically mentioned so in the order.
Leading stock exchange NSE's board has given its approval to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to prosecute its former MD and CEO Chitra Ramkrishna in the co-location scam case, sources said on Monday. The CBI was awaiting the go-ahead of the board of National Stock Exchange of India (NSE) to prosecute Ramkrishna following her arrest in March last year. She was arrested in the co-location scam nearly four years after an FIR was registered by the agency in May 2018.
The CBI action comes following a complaint from the Union home ministry.
It was alleged in an audit that Subramanian was the Yogi, but Sebi dismissed that claim in its final report on February 11.
The CBI on Friday questioned former CEO of National Stock Exchange (NSE) Chitra Ramkrishna in view of fresh facts emerging in connection with its ongoing probe into the alleged abuse of co-location facility in the NSE, officials said. The agency has also opened look out circulars against Ramkrishna, another former CEO Ravi Narain and former COO Anand Subramanian to prevent them from leaving the country. The central probe agency had booked a owner and promoter of Delhi-based OPG Securities Pvt. Ltd, Sanjay Gupta and other in connection with alleged abuse of NSE co-location facility to make gains by getting early access to the stock market, they said.
Capital markets regulator Sebi on Thursday sent a notice to NSE's former chief Ravi Narain, asking him to pay Rs 2.06 crore in a case related to governance lapses at the stock exchange, and warned of arrest and attachment of assets and bank accounts if he fails to make the payment within 15 days. The notice came after Narain failed to pay the fine imposed on him by SEBI (Securities and Exchange Board of India). The regulator, through an order passed on February 11, levied a fine of Rs 2 crore on Narain in the matter of governance issues over the appointment of the chief strategic officer at the stock exchange in 2013.
The CBI arrested former National Stock Exchange CEO Chitra Ramkrishna in the co-location scam case on Sunday, officials said. Ramkrishna was arrested in Delhi and taken for medical checkup, they said. She was later lodged in lockup at the CBI headquarters, they said.
The Delhi high court on Thursday granted bail to Chitra Ramkrishna in the money laundering case related to alleged illegal phone tapping and snooping of the National Stock Exchange (NSE) employees, saying prima facie there are reasonable grounds to believe she is not guilty. Justice Jasmeet Singh granted bail to the former NSE managing director on a personal bond of Rs one lakh and two sureties of the like amount. "Prima facie there are reasonable grounds to believe that the applicant is not guilty of the offence and she is not likely to commit any offence while on bail...the application is allowed and the applicant is granted bail," the court said.
Capital markets regulator Sebi on Tuesday sent a notice to NSE's former chief Chitra Ramkrishna asking her to pay Rs 3.12 crore in a case related to governance lapses at the stock exchange, and warned of arrest and attachment of assets and bank accounts if she fails to make the payment within 15 days. The notice came after Ramkrishna failed to pay the fine imposed on her by the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi). In an order dated February 11, Sebi had slapped a penalty of Rs 3 crore on Ramkrishna for alleged governance lapses in a case related to the appointment of Anand Subramanian as the Group Operating Officer and Advisor when she was at the helm of NSE as its managing director and chief executive officer, as well as for sharing confidential information of the company with an unidentified person.
Capital markets regulator Sebi on Thursday imposed penalties totalling Rs 11 crore on 8 entities, including National Stock Exchange (NSE) and its former chiefs Chitra Ramkrishna and Ravi Narain, in a case pertaining to software related to algorithmic trading. The regulator has levied a fine of Rs 1 crore each on NSE, Ramkrishna and Narain. Also, a fine of Rs 1 crore has been imposed on Suprabhat Lal, who was a NSE official at the time of violation.
A Delhi court on Monday sent to 14-day judicial custody the former managing director and chief executive officer of National Stock Exchange Chitra Ramkrishna in connection with the co-location scam case.
The Enforcement Directorate's (ED's) chargesheet in the National Stock Exchange (NSE) illegal phone-tapping case points to insider trading during the tenures of Chitra Ramkrishna and Ravi Narain as managing director and chief executive officer of the bourse. The federal agency will soon be sharing the details with the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) for further inquiry, two people aware of the findings told Business Standard. The ED, which filed its prosecution complaint (commonly known as chargesheet), alleged that Narain and Ramkrishna were the "key conspirators" and had assisted iSec Services to generate money to the tune of Rs 24 crore for exchanging crucial information, the people said.
The Delhi high court on Friday sought response from the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on the bail plea by former managing director and chief executive officer of the National Stock Exchange (NSE) Chitra Ramkrishna in connection with the co-location case. Justice Sudhir Kumar Jain issued notice on the bail application and listed the case for further hearing on May 31. The trial court had dismissed the bail plea of the former NSE boss on May 12 and said that no ground for bail was made out at this stage.
Sebi had, in February, dropped allegations of fraudulent and unfair trade practices against NSE's former heads Ravi Narain and Chitra Ramakrishna in the co-lo case.
Leading stock exchange NSE, which is facing allegations of governance lapses, has started the hunt for a new managing director and chief executive officer as the five-year tenure of incumbent chief Vikram Limaye is ending in July. The exchange has invited applications from candidates having IPO (initial public offering) experience for the role of the top post before March 25, according to a public notice issued on Friday. Limaye is eligible for another term. However, as per Sebi's rule, the incumbent needs to compete with other candidates to win the next term.
Ramkrishna is in the news after a recent Sebi order said she was steered by a yogi, dwelling in the Himalayan ranges, in the appointment of Anand Subramanian as the exchange's group operating officer and advisor to the managing director (MD).
CBI has made substantial progress in the investigation into the NSE co-location case where markets regulator Sebi has found violations of norms by the stock exchange as well as some of its former top level employees, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said on Tuesday. The government and Sebi have received some complaints in the matter of NSE co-location. In a written reply to Rajya Sabha, the minister said that during the investigation into the matter, it was noticed that certain stock brokers got preferential access to the trading system.
Sebi has imposed a penalty totalling Rs 44 crore on 18 entities, including the National Stock Exchange, its business development officer Ravi Varanasi, former MD and CEO Chitra Ramkrishna and her adviser Subramanian Anand along with certain stock brokers in the 'dark fibre' case.
NSE managing director and CEO Vikram Limaye on Wednesday said that he will not seek a second term at the stock exchange when his five-year term ends in July. This comes amid the National Stock Exchange (NSE) facing the regulatory probe in a case related to governance lapses at the bourse as well as in the co-location matter. "I have informed the board that I am not interested in pursuing a second term and will therefore not be applying and participating in the process that is underway. My tenure ends on July 16, 2022," Limaye said in a statement.
The mysterious Himalayan 'yogi' who allegedly advised Chitra Ramkrishna, former managing director and chief executive officer of the National Stock Exchange (NSE), on important matters of the bourse could be none other than Anand Subramanian, according to a letter written by former NSE chairman Ashok Chawla to the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi). Subramanian was group operating officer of the NSE and advisor to Ramkrishna during 2015-16. He joined as chief strategic advisor in April 2013.
'This issue is related to national security because they were compromising the entire capital markets's core infrastructure by leaking confidential information.' 'What would have happened if the servers had come down?' 'Or some confidential information leaked to terrorists who could have knocked out our capital market?'
Ramkrishna gave 'frequent, arbitrary and disproportionate' increase in compensation to Subramanian when there was no evidence of any performance evaluation being done for him and nor was there any evidence to satisfy the rating of A+ given to him for giving such high increment.
The National Stock Exchange (NSE) has got into firefighting mode to control the reputational damage caused by the Securities and Exchange Board of India's (Sebi's) order against its former managing director and chief executive officer Chitra Ramkrishna and others. According to sources, the exchange's management over the past one week has met several key stakeholders, including officials in the finance ministry and Sebi, major shareholders, and trading members, trying to distance itself from the controversy. The exchange plans to hold more meetings in the coming week to ensure that trading volumes and confidence in the bourse don't get impacted, they added.
In all this, the political establishment -- and especially the finance ministry -- appears the weakest link, and worse still, the possible reason for the political backing to Narain and Ramkrishna that emboldened them to defy all the sentinels -- the independent board, the auditors, top management persons like the chief compliance officer, the company secretary, and unbelievably the super-regulator Sebi, observes V Ranganathan.
Moreover, Ravi Narain and Chitra Ramkrishna -- who had served as MD and CEO of the exchange -- have been asked to disgorge 25 per cent of respective salaries drawn during a certain period.
In the high profile co-location case, markets regulator Sebi on Wednesday imposed a penalty of Rs 1 crore on the NSE for failing to provide a level-playing field for trading members subscribing to its tick-by-tick (TBT) data feed system. In addition, the regulator levied a fine of Rs 25 lakh each on NSE's former managing directors and chief executive officers Chitra Ramakrishna and Ravi Narain. Alleged lapses in high-frequency trading offered through NSE's co-location facility came under the scanner of the watchdog after a complaint was filed in 2015.
It is the biggest issue we have ever faced in the securities market, where a sensitive and systemically important institution and first-line regulator was not only exploited by unscrupulous elements but functioned like a private fief, points out Debashis Basu.
Ravi Narain, managing director and chief executive officer (CEO) of the National Stock Exchange, is set to take charge as chairman of the working committee of the World Federation of Exchanges.
At a meeting held in Mumbai on Monday, the board of NSE decided that Ramkrishna, currently Joint managing director of the bourse, will take charge as MD and CEO with effect from April 1, 2013 for five years.
Seventeen coaches will be splashed with the images of Nifty, NSE's flagship index. Inside, important investor awareness messages will be given on panels, with the message being 'invest carefully'.
NSE chief says they're ready; positive feedback to Sebi draft.
Within a day of announcing advancement of opening to 0900 hours from December 18, NSE along with India's oldest stock exchange BSE deferred implementation of the proposal to January 4 to give more time to the brokerages to align their operations.
Recently, market regulator Sebi had permitted Indian bourses to extend their trading hours to 9.30 am to 5 pm from the present 9.55 am to 3.30 pm.
The rot is is not limited to Chitra Ramkrishna and the yogi, observed Debashis Basu.
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