Wall Street Firm Jane Street Fights SEBI’s Ban Over Alleged Market Manipulation
A major legal battle is underway between US-based trading company Jane Street Group and India’s stock market regulator, SEBI (Securities and Exchange Board of India). A special three-member panel from the Securities Appellate Tribunal (SAT) began hearing the case on Tuesday.
Jane Street is challenging SEBI’s July interim order, which accused the firm of manipulating India’s equity derivatives market to make unfair profits. The firm has strongly denied the claims and asked the tribunal to pause any further action by SEBI until its appeal is fully heard.
One of Jane Street’s key complaints is that SEBI didn’t share important documents, such as communications with whistleblower Mayank Bansal and the National Stock Exchange (NSE). Jane Street says both SEBI and the NSE had reviewed its trades earlier and found no wrongdoing, and that this sudden action is unfair.
However, SEBI may argue that earlier reviews were separate from its new investigation.
In its order, SEBI claimed Jane Street used high-risk, unhedged trades in Nifty Bank options and other products to manipulate the index during the trading day — a tactic known as intra-day index manipulation. It said these trades didn’t seem to have any “plausible economic purpose,” suggesting they were made purely to sway the market.
Jane Street, which is a proprietary trading firm (meaning it trades with its own money), has reportedly made over ₹32,681 crore in profits through these alleged practices — and then sent the money overseas.
This case comes at a time when India has become the world’s largest derivatives market by contracts traded, attracting major global firms like Citadel Securities, Jump Trading, and IMC Trading. Meanwhile, SEBI studies show that Indian retail investors lost around $12 billion in futures and options trading in FY25 — often to large, tech-driven trading firms.
The tribunal’s decision could set a major precedent for how India handles global players in its fast-growing financial markets.
