Brightcom continues to mislead investors as SEBI looks the other way

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Editor's note: Brightcom promoter Suresh Reddy is getting away with murder and the Securities and Exchange Board of India couldn’t be bothered. In April, it became evident that 19 crore shares held by Reddy and other promoters of the Hyderabad-based digital marketing solutions company had gone “missing” from the shareholding pattern shared with stock exchanges.  Whenever promoters sell or transfer shares, they have to intimate stock exchanges under insider trading rules. There was no communication to this effect to the exchanges from Brightcom in the January to March quarter this year, despite over 17% of the promoter holding changing hands. We wrote about it here. The intimation on sale of promoter shares under insider trading rules is an important regulation. It forms the crux of investor trust in a company as investment or divestment by promoters is a marker of their interest in the company. The current rules require companies to report such promoter transactions within 48 hours to stock exchanges.  In Brightcom’s case, the promoters were busy spinning a story of quick success, which saw its stock price move from Rs …