Markets trader Avadhut Sathe, director of Avadhut Sathe Trading Academy Private Limited (ASTAPL), will reportedly challenge the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) order against him and his academy.
The move comes days after SEBI directed Sathe and ASTA to refund ₹546.17 crore collected from participants for providing unregistered investment advisory and research analyst services, along with interest of ₹67.87 crore.
While the SEBI order found that ASTA had provided unregistered investment advisory and research analyst services, the academy maintained that it operated solely as a financial-market training institution.
The academy used live market data only towards the end of its courses to explain to students how to apply the concepts they had learnt, and these demonstrations accounted for approximately 3-4% of total programme hours, reported Moneycontrol, citing advocate Vijay Sardana, who represented ASTA in its hearing before SEBI.
“ASTA’s position is that it has always operated solely as a training academy. None of its social media handles or channels is monetised. The social media handles were created for continuous learning,” Moneycontrol quoted Sardana as saying.