Chennai Police book Franklin Templeton, top exes; claim baseless, says firm

This report has been updated

The Economic Offences Wing (EOW) of the Chennai Police has registered a first information report (FIR) against the beleaguered Franklin Templeton Asset Management India (FTAMIL) and Franklin Templeton Trustee Services (FTTSPL) for an alleged criminal conspiracy to defraud 300,000 investors by causing wrongful loss to them and unlawful gain to themselves.
 

The FIR also named Santosh Das Kamath, MD and chief investment officer, FTAMIL, Sanjay V Sapre, whole time member, FTAMIL, and their directors Jayaram Subramaniam Iyer, Vivek Kudva, RV Subramaniam, and Pradip P Shah, among others.

While EOW officials were not available for comment, Manoj Sheth, president, Chennai Financial Markets & Accountability (CFMA) confirmed the development.
 

The EOW registered the FIR after investigating a complaint filed by CFMA, the investors' group, and a few others with EOW in Chennai in May this year in the interest of millions of aggrieved investors of Franklin Templeton.

A Franklin Templeton spokesperson, however, trashed all allegations as baseless. “We have not seen a copy of the FIR and are not in a position to comment on specific details. The press release issued by CFMA citing the FIR, is replete with various misleading and baseless allegations, besides being inappropriate, as the matter is currently sub judice.”
 
“We are not aware of the antecedents of CFMA and as admitted by them in their original complaint, none of their members were unitholders in the six impacted schemes. Mutual Funds are well regulated and assets of these schemes are held with registered custodians. Portfolios of these schemes retain value according to their respective NAVs, which are published daily based on the valuation of two reputed independent valuation agencies. We have already communicated the reasons for winding up (specifically the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic) and request our investors not to be swayed by unverified or speculative reports in the media. We continue to cooperate fully with all regulatory authorities.” The spokesperson clarified.

The report has been updated to incorporate the company's statement