ED carries out searches in Mumbai and Chennai in premises of former and present officials of Frnaklin Templeton

New Delhi, March 16

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) conducted searches linked to asset manager Franklin Templeton and its former and current executives in Mumbai and Chennai as part of a money laundering investigation.

The company and its promoters are under the lens of charges of Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).

As per the case details, in November 2020, capital markets regulator Sebi issued a show-cause notice to the company following its April 2020 decision to wind up six debt schemes having Rs 25,000 crore of assets under management (AUM) from 3 lakh investors, citing liquidity challenges because of the pandemic.

The company was asked to pay Rs 5 crore as penalty, return over Rs 450 crore collected as 22-month investment management and advisory fees, and was banned from launching new debt schemes for alleged irregularities in running the six debt schemes.

The Chennai police economic offences wing (EOW) registered an FIR to probe these alleged irregularities.

In 2021, SEBI restricted the heads of the asset manager — Vivek Kudva and Roopa Kudva — from accessing the securities market and from buying, selling or otherwise dealing in securities, directly or indirectly, or being associated with the securities market in any manner, whatsoever, for a period of one year