Kapoor And Kapur Families Under Scanner For Pre-Collapse Yes Bank Share Trades
SEBI has been asked by other probe agencies to look deeply into the trades done on March 5.
Several people linked to Kapoor and Kapur families, the erstwhile promoters of Yes Bank Ltd., are said to have traded with unpublished inside information in shares of the now-under-moratorium lender and are under probe along with those who supplied the inside news of a government-sponsored rescue plan, sources said.
Those under the scanner of Securities and Exchange Board of India and other agencies include members of now disgraced Rana Kapoor family as well as those linked to the family of late Ashok Kapur, the sources said.
The two erstwhile founders of one of the most famous new age banks in India's history, which used to proudly call itself the country's fourth-biggest bank till about a year ago but has now become the latest example of the ever-expanding financial sector distress. The bank was started in 2004.
Capital markets regulator SEBI has been asked by other probe agencies to look deeply into the trades done on March 5, the day when the bank was placed under moratorium late in the night. Shares of Yes Bank rose 27 percent last Thursday amid reports that the government has given the go-ahead to State Bank of India and other financial institutions to take over the capital-starved company.
Hours later, the RBI placed Yes Bank under a moratorium, but that announcement was closely followed by another announcement from the government that SBI was asked to rescue the bank and also rope in some other investors. According to the sources, these investors are likely to include some marquee public and private sector financial institutions.
They, however, said that the share deadlines of some have come under the scanner for trades conducted last Thursday and before that, presumably with inside information about the rescue plan and also about the moratorium. The suspects include those associated with the Kapoor and Kapur families, the sources added.
On Monday, Yes Bank administrator Prashant Kumar said he is hopeful of the moratorium being lifted by Saturday. Yes Bank has been put under a moratorium by the RBI till April 3, and customers are not allowed to withdraw more than Rs 50,000 from their accounts.