ISLAMABAD   -  The Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP) has filed four criminal complaints against individuals involved in manipulating stock prices, including sponsors and bro­kerage house management. The court has admitted all four complaints filed by SECP against the accused individu­als. The accused gained signif­icant profits by manipulating the share prices of three list­ed companies in 2019, 2020, and 2021. The SECP reached these conclusions after com­pleting thorough investiga­tions under the Securities Act of 2015. The investigations established that these indi­viduals placed high-priced orders and traded with one another to artificially raise the share prices of specific stocks. They also placed fake buy orders and then cancelled a large number of these trans­actions, resulting in fictitious quotations to deceive poten­tial investors. The accused also fraudulently misused clients’ accounts to place large orders, aiming to at­tract the public by creating a false sense of demand for the shares. In terms of the Secu­rities Act, 2015, market ma­nipulation, being a criminal offense, may lead to impris­onment up to three years and a fine up to Rs. two hundred million. SECP is committed to taking effective supervi­sion and enforcement actions to ensure the integrity of the capital market and protect in­vestors from malpractice.