The Securities and Exchange Board of India, or SEBI, has accused current and former executives at the local units of Carlyle Group and Advent International, as well as PwC and EY among others, of breaching insider trading rules during a stake sale by Yes Bank Ltd. in 2022.
Two executives at PwC and EY, and five other family members and friends made unlawful gains by trading in shares of Yes Bank before a stake sale in July 2022, according to a SEBI notice issued in November 2025. Most of the accused individuals are still serving at their respective firms.
India executives of Carlyle Group, Advent International, PwC, and EY shared unpublished price-sensitive information, enabling others to trade on the basis of the information. SEBI also accused a former Yes Bank board member of sharing price sensitive information enabling others to trade.
The notice follows a SEBI investigation into movements in Yes Bank’s shares before the share sale, in which Carlyle and Advent bought a combined 10% stake for $1.1 billion. Yes Bank shares opened 6% higher a day after the deal was announced on 29 July 2022.
The accused individuals, along with their companies, are in the process of drafting their responses to SEBI’s notice, according to two people familiar with the investigation, who declined to be named due to sensitivity of the matter.
A show cause notice is SEBI’s first step after a probe is completed, and is meant to seek responses from accused persons and entities. If upheld, they could face monetary penalties or restrictions under Indian securities regulations.
SEBI insider-trading rules
The regulatory action marks a rare instance in which senior executives at global consultants and private equity firms have been accused of insider trading violations linked to a fundraising deal.
The action also comes against the backdrop of a sharp surge in fundraising by Indian companies, drawing global investors looking to diversify away from the US due to heightened geopolitical tensions.
SEBI has ramped up a crackdown on market manipulation and insider trading over the last few years. In another recent case, it has alleged breaches of insider trading rules by Bank of America’s India unit during a fundraising process.
Yes Bank insider-trading case — As it happened
The notice accuses a total of 19 individuals of insider trading rule breaches. Seven of them traded based on privileged information and four shared those information. It named eight PwC and EY executives for weak compliance processes.
Ahead of the share offer, Advent hired EY for tax advisory services and sought feedback from the firm on Yes Bank’s management. Separately, EY Merchant Banking Services was engaged by Yes Bank to conduct valuation work. Around the same time, PwC was hired by Carlyle and Advent for tax planning and due diligence.
SEBI found that executives at both EY and PwC breached confidentiality norms, allowing some individuals to trade Yes Bank shares ahead of the capital raise.
According to the notice, EY failed to place Yes Bank on a sufficiently broad “restricted list”—a list of listed companies that executives at a firm are not allowed to trade in.
While staff directly involved in the transaction were barred from trading, others were not, despite having potential access to sensitive information.
Yes Bank insider-trading case — The SEBI action
SEBI said in its notice that this violated a requirement that anyone with access to unpublished price sensitive information must obtain pre-clearance before trading.
The market regulator has asked Rajiv Memani, EY India’s chairman and CEO, and the firm’s chief operating officer to explain why penalties should not be imposed, arguing that EY’s internal trading policy did not comply with insider trading regulations.
“No restriction was ever imposed on trading or investing in listed companies with which EY was engaged for advisory, consulting, valuation, investment banking or corporate finance services (other than audit),” SEBI said.
In PwC’s case, SEBI said that the firm did not have a “restricted stock list” for advisory and consulting clients.
