The Securities Appellate Tribunal has set aside a Sebi order to ban actor Arshad Warsi and his wife Maria Goretti from the securities market with certain conditions in a case related to uploading misleading videos on YouTube, recommending investors to buy Sadhna Broadcast’s shares.

Sebi, on March 2, barred 31 entities, including the couple and promoters of Sadhna Broadcast from the securities market for involving in an alleged “pump and dump” scheme, whereby through an orchestrated scheme, the entities through a co-ordinated involvement made illegal gains by way of the alleged fraudulent and manipulative scheme.

In addition, the regulator impounded illegal gains of Rs 41.85 crore made by these entities after misleading videos were uploaded on YouTube channels. According to the Sebi order, Warsi made a profit of Rs 29.43 lakh and his wife earned a profit of Rs 37.56 lakh. Following this, Warsi, his wife Maria Goretti and his brother Iqbal Hussain Warsi approached the Securities Appellate Tribunal (SAT) against the order passed by Sebi.

Setting aside a part of Sebi’s order, the appellate Tribunal noted that there is no evidence to show that the appellants (Warsis) were involved in the making, distribution, promotion and uploading of the videos on YouTube channels.