The Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) has imposed a ₹30 lakh penalty on OnePaper Research Analysts for mis-selling and fraudulent practices. According to the adjudication order passed by Amit Kapoor, adjudicating officer on June 16, 2026, the penalty comprises ₹10 lakh under Section 15EB of the SEBI Act for regulatory non-compliance and ₹20 lakh under Section 15HA for fraudulent and unfair trade practices. As reported by SEBI, the firm had previously been penalised for research analyst regulation violations. The case arose from a surprise inspection conducted by SEBI in March 2024, with the regulator finding that the Bengaluru-based entity had violated provisions of the SEBI Act, Research Analysts Regulations, PFUTP Regulations, and SEBI's advertisement code.
During the surprise inspection in March 2024 at the Bengaluru office, SEBI found significant compliance gaps. The regulator discovered that OnePaper employed approximately 100 sales executives to serve around 6,730 clients, while maintaining just two registered research analysts on its rolls. According to SEBI reports, this staffing disparity created a compliance picture that regulators found difficult to reconcile with a firm operating at scale. The inspection also revealed that the company failed to maintain call recordings or records of employee communications with clients, despite having a large sales force and thousands of subscribers. This failure to document employee interactions obscured the true extent of misconduct and undermined investor protection.
The inspection team's live call with employee Sarita Pattanayak revealed clear mis-selling practices. As reported by SEBI, the employee assured a prospective client of good returns if they subscribed to OnePaper's services. WhatsApp chats submitted by complainants through SEBI's SCORES portal showed sales staff advising clients to hold Bank Nifty positions, adjust stop-loss levels, and take on additional lots, with explicit promises to recover losses in subsequent trades. According to the order, one employee told a client that losses would be recovered in subsequent trades, while another assured a client that losses would be covered and profits generated thereafter. Notably, several communications were made by employees who were neither registered research analysts nor holders of the required National Institute of Securities Markets (NISM) certifications. These employees were found advising clients on targets, stop-loss levels and trading strategies, activities that fell outside their permitted role.
OnePaper's defence centred on its internal SMS policy, which mandated that research recommendations be sent only via SMS. According to SEBI's adjudicating officer, the firm argued that WhatsApp messages were sent without its knowledge, on employees' personal phones, and in some cases only because SMS delivery had failed. However, SEBI rejected this defence, noting that having written policies without mechanisms to enforce them amounted to little more than paperwork. The order also highlighted that the firm had failed to establish effective monitoring systems to ensure adherence to its own policies and regulatory requirements. The company had previously issued warning letters to employees who had breached the policy, but SEBI observed that mere policies on paper do not discharge a regulated entity of its compliance obligations. Given the scale of operations, SEBI held that the company ought to have deployed robust internal controls to prevent mis-selling and monitor client communications.
