SEBI orders defreezing of bank, demat accounts, MF folios of Rana Kapoor

In July, SEBI had served a notice to Kapoor, demanding a payment of ₹2.22 crore due to his involvement in a case of misselling of Yes Bank's Additional Tier-1 (AT1) bonds.

The notice had explicitly warned him of potential arrest and asset attachment, including bank account seizure, if the payment was not made within 15 days. As Kapoor failed to settle the fine of ₹2 crore imposed by the regulatory authority, a demand notice was dispatched in September 2022.

Subsequently, in September, SEBI took action by attaching his bank accounts, demat accounts, and mutual fund portfolios.

A significant development came about when the Securities Appellate Tribunal (SAT) intervened. On September 12, SAT issued an interim stay on SEBI's order pertaining to the misselling of AT1 bonds by the private lender.

SAT directed Kapoor to deposit a sum of ₹50 lakh within a six-week window, which he duly complied with. The case is now scheduled for a final hearing on November 20.

Following this, SEBI instructed all banks, mutual funds, and depositories, including CDSL and NSDL, to "release the bank account(s), locker(s), demat account(s), mutual fund folio(s) of the defaulter (Kapoor) attached."

SEBI's order had detailed Kapoor's involvement in overseeing the secondary sale of AT1 bonds, asserting that he had exerted pressure on officials to increase sales.

Furthermore, Kapoor was accused of acts involving misrepresentation, suppression of material facts, manipulation, and the improper sale of AT1 bonds of Yes Bank to individual investors.

SEBI contended that he had pressured officials from the private wealth management team to create a scheme for offloading AT1 bonds onto Yes Bank customers.