SEBI v. Vivek Chauhan, Manish Mishra and others (Pressure Sensitive Systems YouTube ramp, 2025)

Judgment entered

✓ Checked against the primary document on October 8, 2026. The library's summary, tags and figures for this record were compared with the regulator's own document by an AI model (Claude) following written instructions, in a single reading of the order; an independent second reading of 60 SEBI records agreed on every field for 56, the four misses being penalty amounts; a later sample of 50 of the SEBI records added on 9 October agreed on every field for 46. No lawyer has reviewed them. A checked record can still contain errors, and checked does not mean endorsed. See how we check records or report a correction.

Report an error in this record (sebi-91430-social-media-ramps-2025) by email

In January 2025 SEBI found that misleading YouTube videos, boosted by paid advertising, had been used to draw buyers into the shares of Pressure Sensitive Systems (India) Limited after its relisting, while connected traders sold at a profit. The order directed disgorgement of Rs 2,54,94,702, imposed restraints of 1 to 5 years and penalties totalling Rs 3,05,00,000.

The record

What was ordered

Civil penalty

—

Disgorgement

—

Prejudgment interest

—

Total relief

—

Alleged gain

—

Penalty as published

30.5m INR

A dash means the release did not state a figure we could extract, not that the figure is zero. Penalty and disgorgement are stored separately so aggregates across the library do not double-count the same dollars. This regulator states penalties in INR. The figure is recorded as published and is not converted, so it does not appear in the USD totals or medians used elsewhere on this site.

What is alleged to have happened

SEBI quasi-judicial authority G. Ramar issued the order on 31 January 2025. It names eleven noticees, ten of whom are listed here, led by Vivek Chauhan, who was chief financial officer and later executive director of Pressure Sensitive Systems (India) Limited, and Manish Mishra. A complaint alleged that misleading YouTube videos backed by paid promotion were being used to lure investors in the stock, which had no promoter and was relisted on BSE in July 2022 after seven years of suspension.

SEBI divided the period April to December 2022 into three patches. In the first, noticees 2 to 11 bought shares; in the second, from mid-September 2022, videos on two YouTube channels, 'Moneywise' and 'The Advisor', pushed the stock using claims such as a tenfold price rise in three months, a coalmine allotment in Australia and rising promoter holdings, and the noticees sold; in the third, after the advertising stopped, price and volume fell. SEBI alleged that Mr Chauhan and Mr Mishra created the channels and the videos, and that noticees 2 to 11 acted as volume creators who traded and took profits.

The order finds the scheme established, with the roles as alleged, in breach of section 12A of the SEBI Act and the fraud and unfair trade practice regulations. The videos were deleted in September 2023, long after the trading.

SEBI directed noticees 2 to 11 to disgorge unlawful gains totalling Rs 2,54,94,702, with some liability joint and several between related persons, restrained the noticees from the securities market for periods from 1 to 5 years (5 years for Mr Mishra, Anshu Mishra and Purav Patel) and imposed section 15HA penalties from Rs 5,00,000 to Rs 1,00,00,000, Rs 3,05,00,000 in all. Asset sales were barred except to pay the disgorgement.

The record does not show whether the order was appealed, whether payment was made, or the investors' actual losses. Noticees 1 and 11 are both named Vivek Chauhan in the order's list with different PAN numbers, and this record does not resolve the point. No criminal case is mentioned.

This library tags the matter as social media ramps and pump and dump. The tagging is ours, not the regulator's.

For the regulator's own account of the facts, read the primary document linked above. This page deliberately summarises the structured record rather than reproducing the order.

What technique is this, and how does it work?

This action is tagged with 2 techniques in our taxonomy. The tagging is ours: regulators charge statutory provisions, not technique names, so the mapping is an editorial judgement described in our editorial policy.

• Social media ramps — see how it works, what statute it engages, and every other action tagged the same way.
• Pump and dump — see how it works, what statute it engages, and every other action tagged the same way.

Timeline

1. 2025-01-31 SEBI order

Primary documents

Everything on this page derives from the documents below. Where our summary and the primary document disagree, the primary document is right.

• SEBI order
• Order (PDF)

The linked release is published by the issuing regulator under its own terms. Our summary and narrative above are our own writing.

Related actions

Other actions in the library sharing at least one technique tag with this one.

Record added October 8, 2026. submit a correction.