SEBI orders repayment of ₹144 crore illegal earnings with interest

SEBI's final order mandates all parties involved in the pump‑and‑dump network to deposit the illicit earnings, amounting to ₹143.79 crore, back into the market with a compounded interest rate of 12% per annum calculated from October 2020. The directive also includes monetary penalties ranging from ₹5 lakh to ₹1 crore, depending on each participant's role. Five firms linked to Honeyf Sheikh received six‑year bans and fines of ₹2 crore each, while other accomplices face bans of up to five years. The regulator emphasized that the repeated appearance of certain intermediary firms across all five companies proved the operation was a single, pre‑planned campaign rather than isolated incidents.