Securities Appellate Tribunal grants interim relief to Franklin Templeton’s Vivek Kudva

MUMBAI: The Securities Appellate Tribunal (SAT) on Thursday stayed an order by the capital markets regulator against Vivek Kudva, head of Asia Pacific distribution at Franklin Templeton Mutual Fund and his wife Roopa Kudva, managing director at Omidyar Network India, that banned them from accessing the securities market for a year.

Last month, Securities and Exchange Board of India had ordered both of them to pay a total fine of Rs 7 crore, for withdrawing investments in six debt plans of Franklin ahead of their closure in April 2020.

While granting interim relief, SAT directed the Kudvas to retain the entire disgorgement amount in an escrow account and also deposit 50% of the penalty amount within three weeks.

Sebi had also directed the Vivek Kudva, his wife and mother to put Rs 22 crore into an escrow account. They had cumulatively redeemed units amounting to Rs 30 crore in the wound- up debt plans while in possession of material non- public information, which Sebi held as unfair trade practice.

Sebi had also alleged that Vivek Kudva passed on material non- public information to his wife, using which she also redeemed her mutual fund units in an unfair manner.

Senior counsel Arvind P Datar and Supreme Court advocate Pratap Venugopal appeared for Sebi, while senior advocates Darius Khambatta and Mustafa Doctor appeared for the Kudvas.

The tribunal has listed both the appeals of Franklin and the Kudvas against the Sebi order for final hearing on August 30.

On Monday, SAT gave interim relief to Franklin by staying the Sebi order that barred it from launching new debt schemes for two years.