SEBI fines PGIM AMC, its CEO Ajit Menon, and others
The total penalty amounted to Rs.35 lakhs.
By : Nilima Pathak
Update: 2022-07-02 01:00 GMT
SEBI fines PGIM AMC, its CEO Ajit Menon, and others
The total penalty amounted to Rs.35 lakhs.
The Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) has slapped a fine on PGIM Asset Management Company, its Chief Executive Officer Ajit Menon and debt fund managers Kumaresh Ramakrishnan, Puneet Pal and Rakesh Suri, for dealing in unfair practices.
The cases pertain to an inspection carried out on inter-scheme transfer for the period August 2018 to February 2019. SEBI found PGIM (which ranked 23rd among the Indian fund houses with assets of nearly Rs.17,000 crore), guilty of unfair inter-scheme transfers that put investors of some of its closed-end funds at a disadvantage.
PGIM was held accountable for transferring good quality securities from its closed-end funds to open-ended funds while transferring stressed securities from open-ended schemes to closed-end schemes. SEBI also questioned the fund house's rationale for investments in 2018 in certain securities including Sunny View and SD Corporation.
The national markets watchdog imposed a penalty of Rs.25 lakh on PGIM, Menon (Rs.5 lakh), and the fund managers, a sum of Rs.2 lakh each.
While Ramakrishnan was the former head of fixed income, who left the fund house last year, Pal is the fund house's present head of fixed income. Suri was a debt fund manager and left the firm in 2019.