SAT Grants Partial Relief To Franklin Templeton AMC’s Kudva Couple

The Securities Appellate Tribunal has stayed SEBI’s order that barred the former director of Franklin Templeton Asset Management Co. and his wife from accessing the securities market for a year.

Vivek Kudva and his wife Roopa Kudva have been granted this relief during the pendency of their appeal before the tribunal. But the couple will have to deposit 50% of the Rs 7-crore penalty amount imposed by the market regulator within three weeks, according to SAT’s order available on its website.

This comes days after the tribunal stayed the Securities and Exchange Board of India’s June 7 order barring Franklin Templeton AMC from launching new debt schemes for two years for breaching rules that ultimately led to winding up of six debt schemes.

SEBI, in a separate order, had also found that the Kudvas had certain non-public information based on which they redeemed their units between March 20 and April 8, 2020 prior to the closure of the six units on April 23, 2020.

The regulator said even though there was no fraud or inducement by the couple, they were still guilty under the unfair trade practice as stipulated under Fraudulent and Unfair Trade Practices regulation.

The matter before SAT is posted for Aug. 30, along with the appeal filed by the AMC.