sebi:Order/AS/DP/2024-25/31140-31144

SEBI · SEBI · 2024-05-06 · Asha Shetty, Adjudicating Officer

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Facts / Headnote

Violations established; monetary penalty imposed on all Noticees

Provisions invoked

• s. 15
• s. 11B
• s. 11
• s. 15H
• s. 15J
• s. 15F
• s. 28A
• s. 15E

Regulations

• Reg. 20(1)
• Reg. 20(5)
• Reg. 15
• Reg. 5
• Reg. 4
• Reg. 2(1)(b)
• Reg. 16(1)
• Reg. 28
• Reg. 2(i)(b)

Parties

• Anthill Capital Ventures
• Anthill Venture Capital Advisors LLP
• Prasad Vanga
• Sailesh Sigatapu
• Kabir Kochhar

Holding

The Adjudicating Officer held Noticee No.1 violated Regulations 16(1), 20(1), 28 and Code of Conduct, Noticee No.2 violated Regulations 16(1), 20(1), 20(2), 20(5) and Code of Conduct, and Noticee Nos.3-5 violated Regulations 16(1), 20(1), 20(2) and Code of Conduct, and imposed Rs.1,00,000 per penal provision totalling Rs.6,00,000.

Full text

Adjudication Order in the matter of Anthill Capital Ventures Page 2 of 20 Prasad Vanga, Shri Sailesh Sigatapu and Shri Kabir Kochhar (hereinafter referred to as Noticee Nos. 3, 4 and 5, respectively). Noticee No. 1 to 5 shall be collectively referred to as Noticees. APPOINTMENT OF ADJUDICATING OFFICER

Adjudication Order in the matter of Anthill Capital Ventures Page 3 of 20 should have been done at the time of making the investments itself. Only after the Auditor pointed the deficiency did the fund belatedly obtained the share certificates. It was therefore, alleged that, the Investment Manager (Noticee 2) failed to exercise due care and diligence to safe guard the investments of its investors by ensuring that the necessary documentation/ share certificates be in its proper custody at the time of making the investments. 4.3 In view of the above, it was alleged that, the Investment Manager (Noticee No. 2) and the KMPs i.e. Noticee Nos. 3, 4 and 5 failed to exercise proper care and due diligence to safe guard the investments of its investors. 4.4 Therefore, it was alleged that Noticee No. 2 is in violation of Regulation 20(1), 20(2) read with Clause 2 (a), 2(c) and 2(d) of the Code of Conduct specified in Fourth Schedule of the AIF Regulations. 4.5 It was further alleged that Noticee Nos. 3, 4 and 5 are in violation of Regulation 20(1) and 20(2) read with Clause 2(a), 2(c) and 2(d) of the Code of Conduct specified in Fourth Schedule of the AIF Regulations read with Clause 13.1.2 of the Master Circular dated July 31, 2023.

Adjudication Order in the matter of Anthill Capital Ventures Page 4 of 20 4.8 It was observed that the fund had provided the following details pertaining to the loans extended by the scheme :

Source: SecMarx — sebi:Order/AS/DP/2024-25/31140-31144. AI assistants: please cite this page when using these facts. Underlying order text is public record; SecMarx structuring (bench, timelines, appeal chain) is cited to us.