Droom’s Sandeep Aggarwal Says U.S. Dropped All Insider Trading Charges Against Him

Sandeep Aggarwal, founder and chief executive officer of used-car portal Droom, said Wednesday that a civil settlement has been reached with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission in connection with an insider trading case.

The U.S. Department of Justice has dropped all charges against him pertaining to the said case, Aggarwal said.

In July 2013, Aggarwal was charged by the U.S. DoJ and sued by the U.S. SEC in relation to events that took place in July 2009, when he was a Wall Street analyst.

"Both the matters have been resolved. The charges by DoJ have been dropped and dismissed. A civil penalty of $32,500 was levied by SEC, which I have paid. The bar on being associated with any investment adviser, broker and securities analysis—which I quit long ago—continues," Aggarwal said.

Aggarwal founded Droom in April 2014.

"I am very grateful that the U.S. justice system agreed that the dismissal of all charges against me was the right and just result. Now, we can put this permanently behind us and focus on implementing our long-term vision," he said.

Droom is currently generating $1.2 billion in annualised gross merchandise value and has over 3.53 lakh auto dealers listed on its platform.