MUMBAI: Two months after Sebi had banned it from the markets with a huge penalty, the Wall Street high-frequency trader Jane Street on Wednesday moved the Securities Appellate Tribunal. While not challenging the punitive action per se, Jane Street sought a direction from the tribunal to direct the regulator to release the relevant documents so that it can rebut the allegations of market manipulation against it. The tribunal is set to hear the matter next Monday.
While Jane Street and Sebi did not confirm or deny the development that follows the ban imposed in the wee hours of July 3-4, an official from a law firm representing the US trader has confirmed the development and the hearing date (September 8) to TNIE, but requested not to name him or his firm.
“Yes, Jane Street filed an appeal on Wednesday at the SAT seeking to direct Sebi to release the relevant documents so that it can rebut the allegations of market manipulation against it,” he said.
Sebi had on July 3 temporarily barred Jane Street from trading for alleged manipulation of indices, primarily the Bank Nifty on expiry days.
Accusing Sebi of refusing to allow full inspection of all relevant and relied upon material, Jane Street said while it was inspecting some of the documents relied on to issue the interim order by whole-time member Ananth Narayan G, it came across an internal surveillance report of Sebi in December 2024 that had been unable to conclude manipulation by Jane Street entities in the two key indexes.
According to the source, all the four entities representing Jane Street have moved the SAT.
One of the key contentions of Jane Street is that Sebi’s own integrated surveillance department (ISD) and the National Stock Exchange (NSE) had previously concluded there was no manipulation, and in spite of these findings, Sebi had formed a new team and reversed its stance without explanation, according to a Reuters report.
In its appeal, Jane Street said, “The impugned orders have been issued in gross derogation of the provisions of the Sebi Act and of the ratio of numerous judgments of various courts, including the Supreme Court, the Bombay High Court, and the tribunal itself. The impugned orders have been passed by the respondent in complete contravention of the well-settled principles of equity, justice, and good conscience.”
In its interim order issued on July 3, Sebi had alleged that Jane Street made huge profits by manipulating the key indices and imposed severe restrictions, including a demand to deposit over Rs 4,843.5 crore of the Rs 36,503 crore net profit it had made in just 21 days of trades from January 2023 to May 2025, in an escrow account as this was the illicit gains from manipulation. Jane Street complied with the order and deposited the money on July 14.
In the interim order, Sebi had said Jane Street and its four related entities took positions in stocks underlying in the Bank Nifty index early in a trading session, while taking short positions in options linked to the index. It later sold the underlying stocks, making a loss on its cash positions, but made far larger gains on its derivative positions.
Sebi’s probe has found the New York based algo trader made a killing by manipulating Bank Nifty on expiry days. Between January 2023 and March 2025, just by gaming the market on 21 trading days, it made a whopping Rs 36,503 crore in net profit by pumping up Bank Nifty component stocks in the morning and then dumping them at lower prices in the afternoon trades.