Sebi had not mentioned the name of the finfluencer. In response to media reports, Sathe, through a video, acknowledged that Sebi visited his Karjat Gurukul residential facility to verify whether he provided investment advisory services.
He said: “You all know we do not provide any such thing.” He further mentioned that he was fully cooperating with the authorities and urged his academy students to “not be distracted by any media reports,” assuring them that “all our sessions are going as per plan.” Sathe could not be immediately contacted by ET.
Sebi has been cracking down on financial influencers offering investment tips or assured investment returns in the name of providing training sessions on trading. An NDTV Profit report stated that Sathe made illegal earnings of ₹400-500 crore. However, this could not be confirmed.
“If they are doing education, we have no problem. But if in the name of education you are misguiding the youth, promising guaranteed returns, giving calls in the classroom, using live data to trade in the equity market, you cannot do that without Sebi registration,” the regulator’s whole-time member Kamlesh Varshney said last week at an industry body event.
Sathe captured the spotlight in 2023 when a video of him dancing in front of a screen with live market tickers at his Pune academy went viral. While some netizens mocked his unconventional teaching style, his students present at the event joined in the celebration. Sathe’s YouTube channel has 937,000 subscribers and he has 1,300 followers on X. Whenever Sebi conducts searches, it takes prior approval from the Sebi special court.
