SEBI Cracks Down On Finfluencer Avadhut Sathe, Impounds ₹546 Crore For Providing Unregistered Investment Advice

The Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) has banned finfluencer Avadhut Sathe from the securities market and impounded Rs 546.16 crore of unlawful gains after finding that he was providing unregistered investment advisory services in the garb of stock market education. SEBI also found that many participants who acted on his instructions suffered losses, while Sathe himself often did not take the same trades. In an interim order passed by Whole Time Member Kamlesh C. Varshney, SEBI also proposes disgorgement of Rs 601 crore with interest, which amounts to the fees that were collected from students/investors. The order also barred his institution, Avadhut Sathe Trading Academy, from accessing or dealing in the securities market and finds his wife, Gouri Sathe, complicit in this illegal activity. It further prohibited them from using live market data. SEBI also directed banks that “no debits shall be made, without the permission of SEBI” from their accounts except for transfers into impounded fixed deposits. The order will also serve as a show cause notice. The market regulator said the material gathered showed that the operations of Sathe and the academy “prima facie does not appear to be case of providing educational services.” Transcripts reproduced in the order recorded how Sathe issued stock specific instructions, including his statement during a Kotak Bank analysis, “I would rather buy 1 to 1.5 Cr worth of Kotak Bank. My Stop Loss is clear…,” and a session where a participant entered a position immediately after he told the class, “This is why I picking this stock, PFC, to buy.” Sathe has claimed that he merely teaches concepts such as market structure and trading psychology but complaints to the regulator said otherwise. Complaints to SEBI alleged that students were encouraged to believe they would earn extraordinary returns if they followed his instructions. SEBI began examining the academy in FY 2023 to 2024 after noticing that its promotional content showcased only profitable trades despite trainers and participants being in net losses. An administrative warning in March 2024 did not stop misleading videos. Complaints escalated, leading SEBI to appoint an investigating authority on July 24, 2025. Search and seizure operations on August 20 and 21 at the premises of Avadhut Sathe, Gouri Sathe and the academy recovered recordings, WhatsApp messages, trade data and promotional material that SEBI said showed direct inducement to trade and, in some cases, staff urging participants to take loans to pay high fees. The regulator's analysis yielded several key findings. Stock Specific Recommendations Were Given During Paid Sessions Recordings showed Sathe giving precise trading calls with entry levels, targets, stop losses and directions on how much capital to deploy, including the Kotak Bank and PFC remarks cited above. SEBI said participants acted immediately on such statements. Participants Acted on Calls in 33 of 34 Instances Examined SEBI reviewed 34 sample instances from live sessions and found that participants executed trades in 33 of them soon after Sathe's instructions, demonstrating that the sessions were not academic but practical advisory activity. Sathe Often Did Not Take the Trades He Recommended SEBI found that Sathe “did not place orders in his own account in respect of certain scrips on which he had made recommendations to his course participants.” The regulator said this pattern "leads to an incontrovertible conclusion that AS was in substance providing advisory/recommendation of trading calls in the garb of educational activities." Misleading Profit Claims and False Testimonials SEBI reviewed testimonials that claimed profits such as “₹1 crore in 2.5 years,” “₹43.2 lakh profits,” and “2X capital in six months.” Trading records showed that the individuals featured had actually incurred losses. SEBI said these claims appeared designed to induce enrolments. Majority of Mentorship Participants Incurred Losses SEBI analysed 186 mentorship participants who paid Rs 6.75 lakh each for the course and found that 65 perce incurred losses during the six month period after completion of the course, contradicting promotional claims made by Sathe and his academySathe and the Academy Themselves Lost Over Rs 6.19 Crore SEBI found that Sathe and the academy had cumulative trading losses exceeding Rs 6.19 crore, which further weakened the claims of consistent success made in promotional material. Advisory Calls Were Also Sent Through Paid WhatsApp Groups Paid WhatsApp groups used for high fee programmes contained daily recommendations, targets and forecasts and commentary on Nifty and RBL Bank. SEBI wrote that “no element of investor education is noted and the same prima facie appears to be in the nature of investment advice or recommendations or trade calls.” Subsequently, the regulator made several directions. Besides the market ban, the order requires the academy to...

SEBI Cracks Down On Finfluencer Avadhut Sathe, Impounds ₹546 Crore For Providing Unregistered Investment Advice

Sahyaja MS

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