Published: December 7, 2025
India’s market regulator, the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI), has moved against one of the country’s most prominent stock-market trainers, Avadhut Sathe, in what is being described as the biggest enforcement action yet against a finfluencer.
In an ex-parte interim order issued on 4 December, SEBI barred Sathe and Avadhut Sathe Trading Academy Pvt Ltd (ASTAPL) from the securities market, froze their accounts and ordered the impounding of ₹546.16 crore – money the regulator says represents unlawful gains from unregistered investment advisory and research analyst activities run under the guise of stock-market education. SEBI’s probe estimates the academy collected around ₹601.37 crore from more than 3.37 lakh–4.1 lakh participants since 2015. [1]
At the same time, fresh reporting on 7 December highlights a striking contrast: while Sathe’s academy earned roughly ₹600 crore from teaching trading, SEBI’s analysis suggests Sathe and his own trading operations together lost over ₹6 crore in the last two financial years. [2]
This clash between marketing promises, regulatory findings and the academy’s denial has turned the Avadhut Sathe case into a test case for the future of financial influencers and market “educators” in India.
Who is Avadhut Sathe – from IT engineer to mass-market trading guru
According to profiles compiled by major business dailies, Avadhut Sathe started his career as an engineer in the IT industry, working with firms such as Hexaware and spending time in global hubs like Singapore, Australia and the United States before returning to India and shifting full-time into trading. [3]
He began conducting stock-market seminars in the late 2000s and formally launched Avadhut Sathe Trading Academy (ASTA/ASTAPL) in 2015. His pitch was ambitious and emotional: ordinary retail participants could become “professionals” capable of building multi-crore portfolios, with one oft-repeated goal – helping one lakh students cross the ₹1 crore net-worth mark by 2031. [4]
Over the next decade, the academy built:
- Hundreds of “Satsang Centres” and a nationwide volunteer structure of “leaders” and “monitors”
- Large offline events – “Mahasatsangs” – where success stories of homemakers, young professionals and job-seekers turning small capital into “crores” were showcased
- A formidable social media presence – roughly 9.3 lakh YouTube subscribers and over 2 lakh Instagram followers, plus Telegram and other channels that amplified his reach among first-time investors across India’s tier-2 and tier-3 cities. [5]
Sathe positioned himself not just as a technical analyst but as a motivational coach, mixing trading with themes of discipline, self-belief and national pride. This “movement” style branding is central to why SEBI’s action is being watched so closely.
What SEBI’s interim order alleges
SEBI’s 125‑page interim order (also serving as a show-cause notice) is the result of an investigation that initially focused on FY 2023–24 and was later extended back to July 2017 through October 2025. [6]
The regulator’s core allegations, as summarised across multiple reports, are:
1. Unregistered investment advisory under the mask of “education”
- SEBI says neither Sathe nor ASTAPL is registered as an Investment Adviser (IA) or Research Analyst (RA), registration that is mandatory when giving stock-specific advice for consideration. [7]
- Despite this, the academy allegedly ran live trading rooms, shared stock-specific buy/sell calls, entry and exit levels, stop-losses and price targets, and actively induced participants to execute trades in real time during sessions. [8]
- Recordings cited in the order show participants telling Sathe they had taken positions immediately after his calls, and discussions about securities that could give returns “better than fixed deposits” – conduct SEBI says goes well beyond neutral “education.” [9]
2. Massive fee collections – and “unlawful gains” of ₹546.16 crore
- From 2015 onward, ASTAPL collected about ₹601.37 crore from more than 3.37 lakh investors across multiple courses and mentorship programmes. [10]
- For eight specific programmes offered between January 2020 and October 2025, SEBI says it has concrete evidence that the activities amounted to unregistered advisory and research services. Fees from these courses – ₹546.16 crore – have been treated as “unlawful gains” to be impounded. [11]
- The regulator has ordered Sathe and ASTAPL to open fixed deposits of an equivalent amount with a lien in SEBI’s favour, and directed banks and depositories to freeze their accounts. [12]
SEBI has also indicated that the remaining portion of the ₹601.37 crore fee pool could be subject to disgorgement after further examination and depending on the explanations the noticees (Sathe and ASTAPL) provide. [13]
3. Misleading performance claims and cherry-picked success stories
The order and subsequent coverage allege that promotional material from the academy routinely:
- Highlighted exceptional profit stories, often in emotional, narrative-driven videos,
- While downplaying or omitting losses, both of participants and of Sathe himself. [14]
SEBI’s own sample study, cited in NDTV and Business Today’s reporting, examined PAN-linked trading data of 186 participants from the last two batches and found:
- Around 65% of these participants incurred losses within six months of the course,
- With combined losses of approximately ₹1.93 crore. [15]
Meanwhile, the regulator found that:
- The academy’s proprietary trading posted losses of about ₹1.89 crore over FY24 and FY25, and
- Sathe personally lost around ₹4.31 crore in the same period.
Together, that’s more than ₹6 crore lost in trading, even as the broader “ASTA ecosystem” generated roughly ₹600 crore in training revenues. [16]
4. Prior warning and continuing violations
SEBI had already issued a formal warning in March 2024, flagging concerns over selective profit showcasing and potentially misleading communication. Despite this, the order says Sathe and ASTAPL continued to publish promotional content and run programmes in largely the same manner up to late 2025. [17]
In August 2025, the regulator even conducted search operations at the academy’s premises and at the residences of Sathe and his spouse Gouri. Analysis of seized WhatsApp chats and training recordings, SEBI says, confirmed that real-time trade guidance was being provided to paying participants. [18]
The academy’s response: “purely educational” and a “victim of regulatory vacuum”
Within 24 hours of the order, Avadhut Sathe Trading Academy issued public statements to multiple media outlets categorically denying the allegations.
Across detailed responses published by India Today, Economic Times, Business Standard and NDTV, the academy has argued that: [19]
- It operates only as a training and education platform, focused on skill-building and decision-making in financial markets.
- Any stock charts, examples or trade discussions used in sessions are “contextual and educational”, not intended as investment recommendations.
- It does not provide personalised advice, manage client funds or execute trades on behalf of participants.
- It does not monetise its YouTube, Instagram or Telegram channels, and therefore disputes being labelled a “finfluencer” at all.
- It has “never accrued any unlawful gains” from advisory or research services, and the SEBI regulations cited do not apply to training-only entities.
- The academy considers itself a “victim of a regulatory vacuum”, arguing that there is no clear regulatory category for market-training institutions that are neither IAs nor RAs but still operate at scale.
- The interim order will be legally challenged, and the academy says it has “full faith in the legal and judicial framework” to resolve the matter.
From ASTA’s standpoint, SEBI has misinterpreted pedagogical interactions as actionable advice. From SEBI’s standpoint, the substance of what participants were induced to do – real trades based on specific calls – is what matters, not the label on the brochure. Where courts and the Securities Appellate Tribunal (SAT) land on this distinction will likely shape the entire finfluencer ecosystem.
Why this is being called SEBI’s biggest action against a finfluencer
Several mainstream outlets have described the case as SEBI’s largest-ever crackdown on a financial influencer:
- The Times of India called it the “biggest order against a finfluencer”, highlighting the ₹546.2‑crore impounding and the scale of investors affected – nearly 3.4 lakh. [20]
- India Today called it a “turning point” in SEBI’s campaign to clean up the finfluencer ecosystem, where many online trainers claim to teach but, in practice, give tradeable tips and live calls without any licence. [21]
- Business Standard and Indian Express have underlined that the entire ₹601‑crore fee pool is now under scrutiny, with SEBI reserving the right to seek disgorgement of the full amount plus interest after the show-cause process. [22]
This scale matters for two reasons:
- Money and reach – Very few individual trainers have ever handled this level of fee income and audience size in India’s retail trading landscape.
- Precedent value – The case comes after a year of increasingly tight SEBI moves targeting finfluencers and social-media-based financial promotions, raising the likelihood that this will become a model for future actions.
The broader crackdown: finfluencers, social media and SEBI’s new rules
The Sathe case does not exist in isolation. It lands on top of a rapidly tightening regulatory environment for financial content creators:
- On 29 January 2025, SEBI issued a circular prohibiting registered intermediaries (brokers, mutual fund distributors, investment advisers, etc.) from associating with unregulated finfluencers for marketing, referral or lead-generation purposes. The move aimed squarely at cutting off the flow of referral fees and revenue-sharing arrangements to unlicensed influencers. [23]
- In late November 2025, the regulator proposed that all SEBI‑regulated entities must display their registration number and name on their social media profiles and even on each post, to help investors distinguish registered professionals from self-styled gurus. [24]
- Separately, SEBI has sought greater powers to access social media records and tackle unauthorized financial content, according to a February 2025 Reuters report, underscoring how central online channels have become to modern market abuse cases. [25]
- Social platforms are also moving: in mid‑2025, Meta introduced a system requiring SEBI-registration verification for financial influencers running investment ads on Facebook and Instagram in India, effectively shutting the door on many unregistered promoters’ paid campaigns. [26]
Industry analysis pieces note that the Sathe order fits squarely into this pattern: SEBI is attempting to draw a firm line between genuine education and de facto advisory, especially when real-time calls, performance claims and fee-based communities are involved. [27]
Expert and industry take: a warning shot to the finfluencer economy
Research and advisory firms commenting on the order say the message is clear: if you are influencing investment decisions, you are expected to be inside the regulatory perimeter.
A recent explainer from a SEBI-registered research house frames the Sathe case as part of a wider “crackdown on unregulated advice,” arguing that: [28]
- The intention is not to kill financial education, but to ensure that knowledge is delivered responsibly and transparently.
- Retail investors should verify SEBI registration numbers of anyone offering “strategies,” “calls” or “premium groups” – especially when real money decisions are involved.
- Finfluencers will increasingly have to separate free educational content from any form of actionable, paid investment advice, with clear disclosures wherever conflicts or interests exist.
Global regulators are watching similar trends: international bodies like IOSCO have flagged finfluencers as both an opportunity for education and a risk for market integrity, given how quickly misleading ideas can scale online. [29]
In that wider context, the SEBI–Sathe confrontation is being read as a test case for how far regulators are prepared to go – and how courts will view the new enforcement tactics.
For retail investors: key red flags the case highlights
While the allegations are still to be tested through the full legal process, the facts laid out so far offer some practical lessons for retail traders and first‑time investors:
- “Sure-shot” performance stories
- Heavy use of highlight reels – participants becoming crorepatis in months – with very little data on overall success/loss rates should ring alarm bells. SEBI’s sample analysis suggested a majority of participants in the last two batches actually lost money. [30]
- Real-time trade calls in “educational” rooms
- If a course, webinar or Telegram group is providing specific buy/sell levels, stop losses and position sizing in real time, regulators are likely to treat it as investment advisory, not just training – and participants should be aware that the provider may require registration.
- Big fees justified by “community” or “mentorship”
- The Sathe order focuses heavily on high-fee mentorship programmes, some costing several lakh rupees, where students allegedly mirrored the trainer’s trades. High ticket prices linked to vague promises of “hand-holding to financial freedom” should be scrutinised carefully. [31]
- Lack of verifiable registration
- SEBI’s new emphasis on registration numbers in social media bios and posts is meant to help. If a trainer or influencer cannot provide a valid SEBI IA/RA registration but is issuing actionable calls, that mismatch itself is a red flag. [32]
- Disparity between marketing and actual track record
- In the Sathe case, SEBI alleges that the academy’s own trading and the trades of its highlighted “heroes” were often in net loss, even as glossy content suggested consistent profits. Investors should prioritise independent verification over testimonial-heavy marketing. [33]
None of this is a guarantee against loss – markets are inherently risky – but the case underlines that regulatory status, transparency and realistic expectations matter just as much as strategy.
What happens next: legal route and possible outcomes
As of 7 December 2025, the SEBI order is:
- Interim,
- Ex-parte (passed without prior hearing of the noticees), and
- Also a show-cause notice.
According to Livemint’s summary of the order, Sathe and ASTAPL have 21 days to file their response, after which SEBI can pass a confirmatory or modified final order, directing disgorgement of the entire ₹601.37 crore with interest, imposing longer market bans and potentially ordering refunds to affected participants. [34]
Parallelly, the academy has indicated it will challenge the interim order before the appropriate legal forum, which is usually the Securities Appellate Tribunal (SAT) in such matters. Business Standard and others report that ASTA’s strategy will hinge on arguing that: [35]
- It falls outside the IA/RA regulatory framework as a pure training entity
- SEBI has overreached by interpreting educational discussions as advisory
- And the regulator has miscalculated or mischaracterised fee income as “unlawful gains.”
Given the typical timelines of market-regulation litigation in India, the final shape of the case may take months or even longer to emerge, possibly involving appeals and cross-appeals.
Why this case matters far beyond one academy
Whatever the final outcome, the Avadhut Sathe case is already reshaping the conversation around finfluencers in India:
- For regulators, it illustrates how a large, emotionally driven education ecosystem can – in their view – morph into de facto advisory and even mass mis‑selling.
- For genuine educators, it is a signal to tighten boundaries, disclosures and documentation so that education stays clearly separate from actionable, paid advice.
- For investors, it’s a reminder that charisma, community and social proof are not substitutes for regulation, risk management and due diligence.
As of 7 December 2025, SEBI has fired its biggest shot yet at the finfluencer world. The response from courts – and from thousands of aspiring traders who followed Sathe’s playbook – will determine whether this becomes a one‑off headline, or the template for how India will police money advice in the age of social media.
References
1. www.livemint.com, 2. www.ndtv.com, 3. m.economictimes.com, 4. www.ndtv.com, 5. www.ndtv.com, 6. m.economictimes.com, 7. www.livemint.com, 8. www.livemint.com, 9. www.livemint.com, 10. www.livemint.com, 11. www.livemint.com, 12. www.livemint.com, 13. www.livemint.com, 14. timesofindia.indiatimes.com, 15. www.ndtv.com, 16. www.ndtv.com, 17. www.ndtv.com, 18. www.livemint.com, 19. www.indiatoday.in, 20. timesofindia.indiatimes.com, 21. www.indiatoday.in, 22. www.business-standard.com, 23. www.primedatabase.com, 24. www.livemint.com, 25. www.reuters.com, 26. economictimes.indiatimes.com, 27. www.equentis.com, 28. www.equentis.com, 29. www.iosco.org, 30. www.ndtv.com, 31. www.ndtv.com, 32. www.livemint.com, 33. www.ndtv.com, 34. www.livemint.com, 35. www.business-standard.com
