Several foreign funds investing in the Gautam Adani-led Adani Group have come under the scanner. As per latest report, these funds have refused to identify their beneficial owners on grounds of client confidentiality and foreign privacy laws.
According to Livemint.com, market regulator the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) has now sought ownership information from these foreign funds vested in the Adani Group. This comes after Saturday’s reports when SEBI asked for six more months from the Supreme Court to complete its investigation in the Adani Group after Hindenburg Research report alleged fraud.
The report adds that one of the foreign fund claims that its beneficiaries are in Switzerland and there, it is a criminal offence to collect evidence from the country to help a foreign investigation. Even others reportedly said that their home country regulators could sue them under General Data Protection regulation (GDPR). The said act restricts data sharing.
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“They have already provided the beneficial ownership requirements as per market norms, but SEBI wants the names of actual investors behind the fund,” Livemint.com quoted a source as saying.
However, in order to fetch maximum information on the ownership structure, SEBI may reportedly have to go through several countries. Since many of these funds have complex structures, the route and investigation also reportedly gets difficult.
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