NEW DELHI: Indiabulls Asset Management Company, now known as Groww AMC, along with its schemes and former officials, settled a case with SEBI regarding alleged breaches of alternative investment fund regulations after a payment of ₹1.43 crore.
Those involved in the settlement include Indiabulls AIF, Indiabulls Dual Advantage Real Asset Fund (IBDARA), Indiabulls Real Estate Fund (IBREF), Ambar Maheshwari, Amit Jain, and Parth Muria, as stated in a SEBI order.
The case was related to violations reportedly dating back to 2017.
In 2023, Indiabulls AMC was acquired by the fintech company Groww. It has three business sectors: mutual funds, alternative investment funds, and portfolio management.
SEBI stated, “With the acceptance of the settlement terms and receipt of the settlement amount (₹1.43 crore) by SEBI, the adjudication proceedings initiated against the applicants via the show cause notice dated September 26, 2024, are disposed of in accordance with the Settlement Regulations.”
This ruling followed the entities’ applications to settle the proceedings initiated against them without admitting or denying the factual findings or legal conclusions.
Previously, SEBI had started adjudication proceedings concerning an inspection of Indiabulls AIF, issuing show cause notices to the involved parties in September 2024.
In its notices, SEBI alleged that the applicants pledged IBDARA scheme assets as collateral for loans taken by an investee company. They reportedly failed to maintain an equal drawdown percentage across all unit classes for the IBDARA scheme, did not adhere to concentration limits in the investee company for both the IBREF and IBDARA schemes, and did not ensure proper investment valuation frequency for both schemes.
Moreover, SEBI claimed that the applicants misrepresented financial information related to the IBDARA scheme’s valuation to investors; they failed to comply with a deficiency letter dated May 12, 2017, requiring bi-annual security valuations following the FY 2015 inspection and submitted inaccurate details in the Compliance Test Report (CTR) provided to the trustee.
