Rana Kapoor, former managing director and chief executive officer of Yes Bank Ltd, had on Friday filed a petition before the appellate tribunal against the Sebi penalty in the misselling case.
On Wednesday, Sebi sought three weeks to respond, which was granted by the tribunal.
“The matter will be taken up for further hearing on 16 December," said a SAT bench led by Justice Meera Swarup.
In March 2020, the Reserve Bank of India wrote down the value of Yes Bank’s AT1 bonds worth ₹8,415 crore to zero as part of restructuring the private lender, causing huge losses to investors. Many people told the regulator that the bank had sold AT1 bonds as super fixed deposits. This prompted a Sebi probe between 2016 and 2020 whether Yes Bank staff and institutional investors, who sold the bonds to retail buyers through Yes Bank, violated the Prohibition of Fraudulent and Unfair Trade Practices related to Securities Market.
Sebi on 7 September imposed a penalty on Kapoor. “Considering the large number of investors impacted and the quantum of sales achieved through this scheme, this act deserves penalty commensurate with the severity of violation. We hereby impose a penalty of ₹2 crore on Rana Kapoor," it said.
Kapoor on Friday, his counsel informed SAT that even if the bonds were sold by the bank, investors were well informed about the risks involved. However, when Kapoor was at the helm of affairs at Yes Bank, it was alleged that the bank had concealed the risk factors associated with AT-1 bonds.
