Business News

NSE has suspended trading in Brightcom Group shares with effect from June 14, 2024, after the company failed to declare its quarterly earnings for two consecutive quarters ending September 30, 2023, and December 31, 2023.The suspension comes in accordance with market regulator Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) Master Circular of July 11, 2023. The Master Circulars’ Regulation 33 governs the submission of financial results.In a circular issued by the exchange on Tuesday, NSE stated that trading in securities of Brightcom Group will remain suspended until the company complies with the above regulation. After 15 days of suspension, trading in the securities of non-compliant companies would be allowed on a trade-for-trade basis in the Z category on the first trading day of every week for six months.Shares of Brightcom Group fell to the intraday low of Rs 12.25, down by Rs 0.65 or 5.04%.On May 13, Monday, the stock plunged to its 52-week low of Rs 12.20 and has corrected by nearly a third from its 52-week high of Rs 36.45 on the NSE.The counter is currently trading below its 50-day and 200-day simple moving averages (SMAs) and has been very volatile trading with a 1-year beta of 1.4 over a 1-year period. Brightcom has been in the news for many wrong reasons recently. In February, Sebi issued confirmatory orders against Brightcom Group, restraining promoter-cum-chairman and managing director Suresh Kumar Reddy from holding any directorial positions until further notice. The company was also barred from dealing with the securities market.In August last year, the capital market watchdog passed a second interim order against Reddy, Raju, Sharma, and 21 other individuals for their alleged involvement in round-tripping of the company’s funds to falsely portray receipt of proceeds through preferential allotment of shares.In October 2022, Sebi received complaints pertaining to the funds raised by Brightcom Group through a preferential issue of shares/warrants during the FY19-21 period.The market regulator alleged that the group raised the money through preferential issues to entities that were directly or indirectly connected to it and that the money raised was given as loans and advances to its subsidiaries.(Disclaimer: Recommendations, suggestions, views, and opinions given by the experts are their own. These do not represent the views of The Economic Times)

A US district court has approved a stipulated dismissal agreement that lifts sanctions on more than 90 foreign nationals, many of whom are Indian, who were previously denied re-entry to the US or deemed ineligible for visas due to their association with an Optional Practical Training (OPT) fraud committed by their former employers.These students, who were victimized by fraudulent OPT employers, had faced severe repercussions, including being denied entry into the US and visa ineligibility. One affected individual from Chennai recounted being turned away by US customs officials after a brief vacation, simply because he had briefly worked for a blacklisted company certified for conducting OPT.Jesse Bless, an attorney representing the plaintiffs, told TOI's Lubna Kably that after extensive negotiations, the US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) agreed to review its records and confirmed that these former students are neither inadmissible to the US nor ineligible for visas solely based on their employment with fraudulent OPT companies. "With the inadmissibility lifted, these plaintiffs have now regained another opportunity to live and work in the United States," Bless said.OPT allows international students to gain work experience in the US, with STEM students eligible for an additional two-year extension. According to an Open Doors Report, 69,000 of the 2.7 lakh Indian students in the US during the 2022-23 academic year were undergoing OPT.Jonathan Wasden, another attorney for the plaintiffs, explained that the scam involved companies certified by DHS under the E-Verify system, which aggressively marketed consulting jobs to recent graduates. These companies conducted interviews, offered employment, and charged for dubious training programs, typically under $500. Despite being certified for years, the companies were eventually raided by DHS, which seized employee lists and began matching names, leading to findings of inadmissibility against students.Wasden criticized DHS for not alerting the public earlier, which could have prevented thousands of students from falling victim to the scam. He noted that students admitted to the US before the scam was uncovered were later made inadmissible, often without due process, leaving them stranded with their possessions in the US.He advised students to protect themselves by avoiding companies that charge for training and to report suspicious activities through an attorney to DHS proactively. This proactive reporting could offer some protection if the company is later blacklisted.108765268