The Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) on Wednesday imposed penalties on former news anchor Hemant Ghai and two others, including his wife, for alleged fraudulent practices and barred them from dealing in securities for five years. The markets regulator has also fined Motilal Oswal Financial Services (MOFSL) for failing to adequately supervise authorised persons.

The order, issued by SEBI’s whole time member Ashwini Bhatia, said Ghai — a former CNBC-Awaaz news anchor with a significant social media following — unfairly used the privileged information, and had full control over the accounts of his wife Jaya Hemant Ghai, mother Shyam Mohini Ghai and MAS Consultancy Service.

SEBI has directed Hemant and Jaya to disgorge unlawful gains worth Rs 6.16 crore, along with a 12% interest per annum to be calculated from March 31, 2020, till the date of the interim order. Any failure to pay the amount within 45 days will attract a 12% annual interest until the full amount is cleared.

The regulator has also imposed a penalty of Rs 50 lakh each on Jaya and Hemant and Rs 20 lakh on MAS Consultancy Service, which facilitated Ghai’s fraudulent trades and submitted fabricated order instruction sheets to the regulator. MOFSL has been fined Rs 500,000 for failing to adequately supervise authorised person MAS.

“When high-profile TV anchors, hired by leading business channels and entrusted with informing and educating investors, exploit material non-public information for personal gain, they betray the very trust that underpins market transparency,” the order noted, adding that this not only undermines their credibility, but also weakens the investor confidence in the fairness of market mechanisms.

It pointed out that anchors hold a position of privilege. Hemant Ghai had a huge following on social media and was closely followed on CNBC. The recommendations he made influenced investment decisions of his viewers and impacted the price and volume of recommended stocks. However, he unfairly used this privilege to his own advantage, the order said.

According to the order, majority of trades and profits in the accounts of Jaya Ghai and Shyam Mohini Ghai stemmed from trades synchronised with stock recommendations made on CNBC by Hemant. SEBI found out that trading in these accounts came to an abrupt halt soon after the NSE and MOFSL had raised alerts regarding suspicious activity, leaving no doubt that the activity ceased because questions started getting raised.

Further, the sharp decline in profits in Jaya Ghai’s account in the period following removal of trading restrictions in 2022 underscores the extent to which the trading strategy was dependent on privileged access to upcoming recommendations, the SEBI order said, noting that between July 2023 and February 2025, after restrictions on her trading were lifted, Jaya Ghai earned only around Rs 50,000 as profits from BTST and intraday trades — a stark contrast to over Rs 9 crore earned as profits in the three years constituting the investigation period when Hemant Ghai was an anchor on CNBC.

“This dramatic drop in profitability is a clear indication that the extraordinary trading success previously observed was not a function of skill, strategy or market acumen, but purely a result of access to material non-public information,” the order said. “Without the oracle’s foresight, the magic vanished, and the trades stood exposed as a scheme built on privileged information.”