Mumbai, Dec. 5 -- Avadhut Sathe had a simple, potent promise: the transformation of ordinary retail traders into multi-millionaires. Driving this narrative was Avadhut Sathe Trading Academy (ASTA), a vast, multi-layered training ecosystem, conducting regular 'Mahasatsang' events, with the audacious goal of helping "one lakh professional ASTAians cross the Rs.1 crore milestone by 2031."

Late on Thursday, the stock market regulator barred Sathe and his firm from dealing in securities for allegedly acting as an unregistered investment adviser and making illegal gains of Rs.546 crore, its biggest clampdown on a finfluencer to date. The Securities and Exchange Board of India's interim order strikes at the heart of one of India's most prominen...