SEBI caught "India's Jane Street" scam today.
The entities - Prrsaar Sampada Private Limited and Chaubara Eats Private Limited.
Prrsaar had a Broker, DP and Research Analyst license from SEBI.
What they did was fancy for a scam.
What SEBI did to catch them was fancier.
Their modus operandi:
1. Pick a small-cap stock from the bottom 100 F&O names on NSE. Low market cap. Thin liquidity. Easy to move.
2. Plant huge options orders on all four sides:
- sell calls above LTP,
- buy calls below LTP,
- sell puts above LTP,
- buy puts below LTP.
Options position 3-4x bigger than the futures position about to come.
3. Attack the futures.
Aggressive sell orders BELOW LTP to crash the price.
Aggressive buy orders ABOVE LTP to pump it back.
Alternating patches - sell, buy, sell, buy, sell, buy.
4. Each futures move triggered the planted options orders at manipulated prices. Small deliberate loss in futures - the hammer.
Big profit in options - the real trade.
Net profit across just 23 top days: ₹28.12 crore.
SEBI passed an ex-parte interim order today. Bank accounts impounded.
Market ban on all six Noticees.
Investigation ongoing - SEBI itself says the actual number will be much bigger.
Order by WTM Kamlesh Varshney. 👏👏