On February 6, the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) impounded illegal gains of nearly Rs 54 crore and asked the popular Asmita Patel Global School of Trading Pvt Ltd and other noticees, includeing directors, to show cause why all of the fees amounting to approximately Rs 104 crore should not be seized.
Asmita Jitesh Patel, widely known as the “she-wolf of the stock market” or “options queen,”is one of the directors of the school. She is now facing action from SEBI for alleged “Illegal Gains”. The popular YouTube finfluencer has been barred from the capital markets.
Forty-two investors have complained about Asmita’s unauthorized investment advisory activities. The regulator initiated an investigation against her APGSOT for these “ill doings.” The complainants also allege that Patel had accumulated assets worth Rs 140 crore through her proprietary system. SEBI’s detailed 129-page order outlines these violations and imposes a permanent ban on the accused, preventing them from accessing the securities market.
SEBI Banned 6 Entities
Asmita Patel Global School of Trading (APGSOT), Asmita Patel, Jitesh Jethalal Patel, King Traders, Gemini Enterprise, and United Enterprises—from the capital markets for allegedly offering unregistered investment advisory services.
According to a PTI report, the regulator has impounded over Rs 53 crore, which was collected as fees from course participants for various programmes.
Who Is Asmita Patel?
Asmita Patel was born in Gujarati family. She is the director of Asmita Patel Global School of Trading Private Limited (AGSTPL), a company based in Navi Mumbai. Patel’s husband, Jitesh Patel, is also a director of AGSTPL.The lady brands herself as “She Wolf of the Stock Market” and the “Options Queen.” According to her website, She has 17 years of trading experience and over a decade of teaching expertise, winning several awards for her contributions to financial education.
On her website, Patel offers “educational courses” on Options Multiplier (OM), Master’s in Price Action Trading (MPAT), and Let’s Make India Trade (LMIT). The website also describes Patel as “A woman who is on a mission to uplift the lives of people”, adding that she “seeks to empower people with the right knowledge when it comes to finance, stock market and investing one’s wealth in a responsible and mindful manner”.
Asmita claims to have mentored over one lakh students worldwide. Patel is a financial influencer with a strong digital presence through her website, asmitapatel.com. She has a substantial following across social media platforms, including 5.26 lakh subscribers on YouTube, 2.9 lakh followers on Instagram, 73,000 followers on Facebook, 1,900 followers on LinkedIn, and 4,200 followers on Twitter (X).
What Did Asmita And Her Institute Do?
SEBI officials discovered that the school’s representatives, including its director, shared stories of professionals who had quit their jobs and claimed to have made extraordinary returns after taking Asmita’s course or following her strategies. Money Control reported that there were claims of a VP of a big company whose trading capital went up from Rs 30 lakh to Rs 3 crore, a chartered accountant whose capital went up from Rs 30 lakh to Rs 12 crore and an engineer who quit his job to become a full-time trader and who thus came to have a trading capital of Rs 80 lakh.
As the SEBI order noted, “Students/investors/participants were encouraged to leave job and join MPAT (a course run by her institute) to make something big.” Participants were advised to exit mutual fund investments or use other people’s money in case they were short of capital! In a recorded conversation with a course participant, Patel advises borrowing for trading and adds that it should not be for an interest rate of more than 18 percent.
