Bourse-barred Samir Arora appears before SEBI for hearing

Our Markets Bureau
29 August 2003

Mumbai: Samir Arora, former chief investment officer of Alliance Mutual Fund who has been barred from dealing in securities for alleged insider trading, appeared for a personal hearing before the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI).

In the hearing, Arora appeared along with his counsel, Aspi Chenoy, before SEBI's whole-time board member, T M Nagarajan. The closed-door hearing lasted for around two hours.

"No future date has been given for hearing as of now," Chenoy told newspersons. Arora refused to speak to reporters after the hearing.

Early this month, SEBI had barred Arora from dealing in securities, directly or indirectly, till further orders for alleged insider trading and non-disclosures of investments.

SEBI, in its interim order, had said there is a prima facie case of insider trading by Arora. Being the fund manager at Alliance Mutual Fund and foreign institutional investor/sub-accounts of US-based Alliance Capital Management (ACM) Arora was responsible for the alleged non-disclosures and wrong disclosures under SEBI's regulations.

Apart from this, Arora's arrangement with Henderson Global Investors for the purchase of the stake of ACM in Alliance Mutual Fund was in conflict with his interest as a fund manager, it said.