SAT gives relief to Franklin Templeton’s Vivek Kudva, wife

New Delhi, July 2

The Securities Appellate Tribunal (SAT) has stayed a SEBI order that barred Franklin Templeton’s Asia Pacific (APAC) head Vivek Kudva and his wife Roopa from the securities market for one year.

Markets regulator SEBI, last month, imposed a market ban on the couple for redeeming units of Franklin Templeton Mutual Fund (MF) schemes while in possession of non-public information.

Based on the non-public information, they redeemed their units during March 20 – April 8, 2020, before the closure of the units on April 23, 2020, SEBI noted.

The charge against the couple is that they redeemed their MF units when the schemes were facing redemption pressure and eventually those schemes were wound up on April 23, 2020. The SEBI also levied a penalty of Rs 7 crore on the couple. They were also asked to jointly transfer Rs 22.64 crore redeemed of Franklin Templeton MF schemes to an escrow account. — PTI