MUMBAI: Braving the torrential rains that crippled the financial capital for five days from 16 August, early on the morning of 20 August, a Sebi enforcement team led by a deputy general manager knocked on the doors of finfluencer Avadhut Sathe at Karjat, a popular weekend getaway north of the megapolis.
He had been under the regulatory radar for a long time, and the first complaint against him reportedly reached Sebi headquarters in 2023. The officials endured the highly inclement weather to launch a search and seizure operation at his home and academy.
For the record, Sebi has not named him officially or issued a statement, as has been the case when it acted against others like him. All that Sebi whole-time member Kamlesh Varshney would tell journalists on Thursday was: “Yes, we’ve carried out a big search operation on a big name in the finfluencer industry. I must give credit to my team who has been working on this. I can't comment much further until we examine the evidence that has been collected."
According to a Sebi official aware of the development, the search and seizure operation was long planned and meticulously prepared. It began early on Wednesday (20 August) and lasted until the following evening. Court approvals were obtained in advance, movement patterns were tracked, and reconnaissance was carried out before the raid, which seized his digital devices and trading data for forensic analysis.
Sathe was under Sebi’s radar for giving stock recommendations under the guise of investor education. In the past, Sebi had issued strictures against individuals indulging in such activities.
Sathe’s rise as a popular finfluencer, since he began dabbling in the markets in 1991, has been phenomenal — from growing up in a chawl in Dadar, central Mumbai, to reportedly owning stocks worth hundreds of crores today. After earning an engineering degree, he moved overseas for work and has been employed in the US, Singapore, and Australia.
After finding success in investing and trading, he quit his job and decided to train students full-time from 2008. That is how the Avadhut Sathe Training Academy (ASTA) in Karjat was established, where participants can enrol in a three-month gurukul mentorship programme with graduation certificates. In fact, Sathe has built a sprawling training empire blending trading, spirituality, and salesmanship.
He set up the academy in 2008 with one location. Today, it has 17 branches across the nation, from Mumbai, Delhi, and Bengaluru to smaller cities like Bhubaneswar, Kochi, and Nagpur, and offers training in English, Hindi, Tamil, Marathi, and Telugu. Online classes are also offered for international students, and he claims to have students from the UAE and even the US.
The academy has a dedicated social media following, and his YouTube channel boasts nearly 1 million subscribers, while the Instagram account has more than 2,37,000 followers. A three-month residential training costs between ₹21,000 and ₹1.7 lakh.
According to the ASTA website, Avadhut is “a man with a compelling vision of achieving financial independence for every class of people, and a successful trader with over three decades of trading and investing experience.”
Sathe became a viral sensation in 2023 when he was seen dancing in a large hall at his Pune academy in front of a screen flashing with live tickers. Though many joked about his unusual teaching method, his students joined in on the celebrations.
His YouTube page highlights customer success, ranging from a homemaker who made 50% on her capital in three months to another housewife who reportedly breached the ₹1 crore barrier in just 30 months from trading.
In fact, he has been on a downward slope for some time now, as many finfluencers and market participants began tagging him as a fraud and scamster. They also accused him of misleading investors for personal gains through his training academy, where the curriculum goes beyond technical learning as he has integrated psychology, yoga, sanskaar, and satsangs.
Sathe’s credibility was waning even before the Sebi crackdown. Finfluencers and analysts were shunning him and grouping him with the likes of Asmita Patel and PR Sundar, both criticised for aggressive self-promotion and questionable market practices.
Sathe also advises students on penny stocks and provides other tips over private WhatsApp groups. These recommendations involve Sathe working with operators or promoters to push such stocks onto unsuspecting students, who would buy en masse.
Various reports said his training academy had been growing in leaps and bounds, his fee income was estimated to be around ₹17 crore in 2021, which more than doubled to ₹37 crore in 2022 and then jumped to ₹86 crore in 2023. In 2024, it was projected to hit ₹116 crore, and the estimate for 2025 is around ₹200 crore.