Sebi Hunts 'She-Wolf': How Youtuber Asmita Patel's Empire Came Crashing Down

Sebi Goes After 'Options Queen': D-street seems to have become a beloved place of fraudsters in-disguise as 'market gurus'. From Baap of all charts to the Mahadev App, every year the Indian stock market witnesses new scammers giving baits to retail investors.

Take the case of Asmita Patel, a renowned YouTuber and trader, running an entire educational institute for stock market trading. After receiving complaints from over 40 individuals, Sebi is cracking down on Asmita Patel Global School of Trading (AGSTPL) and its directors for allegedly masking stock tips as educational content through Telegram, Zoom and emails.

The market watchdog has already seized AGSTPL's gains worth around Rs 54 crore. According to the regulator, the institute made fraudulent gains of nearly Rs 104 crore through 'ill-gotten means.'

Why is Sebi Chasing YouTuber Asmita Patel?

As per the market watchdog's investigation, AGSTPL and its directors were offering investment advisory services in the name of educational content, and that too without necessary registrations. The company aggressively promoted paid courses like MPAT (Master’s in Price Action Trading), LMIT (Let’s Make India Trade) and Options Multiplier (OM).

The MPAT course alone was priced at Rs 8.26 lakh. And just like every other market scam, individuals were given the bait of high returns and financial success. This manipulation was done to such an extent that the institute asked people to use borrowed money and take loans to enroll in these courses.

"(The institute) insisted students/investors/participants to liquidate their existing mutual fund investments as well as gold and to borrow from various sources such as banks, friends and family, to enable them to subscribe to the course and bring in more capital towards trades that would be suggested on the telegram channel," the market regulator said.

Creating the Hype

The financial institution also tried to make illegitimate hype about their courses on various social media platforms by deleting all the negative reviews. At multiple times, Patel had allegedly promised guaranteed returns if people considered AGSTPL's trading courses.

People were even asked to open trading accounts with a particular broker (ABC Ltd., disguised name), where Asmita Patel was an authorised person.

SEBI found that people were pushed to execute trades based on the firm’s instructions. In the name of 'handholding students/investors/participants' during courses, their real-time trading was monitored at all times.