Metropol TV has been forced to pull the plug on disgraced stockbroker Aly Khan Satchu’s The Smart Investor show, after a stern warning from the Capital Markets Authority (CMA), Business Today has been told by people familiar with the matter.
Despite being sanctioned last month for his role in the KenolKobil insider trading saga, Satchu has been hosting the show, which provides a forum for experts and policymakers to discuss and analyse issues and developments touching on investment.
Metropol TV General Manager Terryanne Chebet, however, indicated the station had not received any communication to that effect.
An Ad Hoc Board Committee Committee established by CMA to probe the role of various individuals in the sale of the 24.99% Wells Petroleum shareholding in KenolKobil to Rubis Energie SAS (Rubis) ahead of a takeover by the French firm fingered Satchu and Kunal Bid for using insider information in a bid to benefit from the transaction.
“The two stockbroking agents thereafter used the insider information to deal in the price affected shares by advising and/or buying on behalf of their various clients approximately 59 million Kenol Kobil shares in the week before the takeover announcement was made on 24th October 2018, contrary to the provisions of Section 32 B (1)(a) and (b) of the Capital Markets Act,” CMA said in a statement on July 8.
Consequently, the Committee revealed that Mr Satchu received Ksh4,692,497.50 as commissions from the respective trades conducted on the basis of insider information.
The Committee further disqualified Mr Satchu from holding office as a key officer of a public listed company and/ or issuer, licensee, or in any other capacity in an approved institution of CMA (including a stockbroking agent) for a period of three years.
It comprised Chief Justice (Rtd) Willy Mutunga, academic Jim McFie, Patricia Kiwanuka, president of the CFA Society of East Africa; and Anne Eriksson, former country and senior regional partner PricewaterhouseCoopers.
News of the CMA warning to Metropol TV, operated by Metropol Corporation owned by Sam Omukoko, came as it emerged Satchu, through senior counsel Ahmednassir Abdullahi, made attempts to frustrate the committee by questioning its jurisdiction.
When this failed, he tried to defend his trades, claiming that he had interviewed the KenolKobil CEO David Ohana in 2017 and that he bought the oil firm’s shares because in October the market had collapsed and the share was mispriced, hence it had an upside, according to a report in Business Daily.
However, he was hard put to explain why he sought to share his clients’ profits and why he asked them to doctor letters to indicate they had instructed him to buy the shares. On the latter, he admitted he made an irregularity but told the committee he would have eventually only got commissions.
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