GSF Venture Capital Fund Settles Non-Compliance Of AIF Rules Case With Sebi

GSF Venture Capital Fund has settled a case pertaining to alleged non-compliance of Alternative Investment Fund (AIF) rules with markets regulator Sebi after the payment of over Rs 15 lakh towards settlement amount.

This came after GSF Venture Capital Fund filed an application with Sebi proposing to settle the proceedings initiated through a show cause notice (SCN) in November 2022, "without admitting or denying the findings".

The fund made a payment of Rs 15.13 lakh on January 12 and accordingly, "instant proceedings initiated against the applicant vide post enquiry SCN dated November 21, 2022 are disposed of," Sebi Whole Time Member Ananth Narayan G said in his order passed on January 25.

In its show cause notice, Sebi alleged that GSF Venture Capital Fund failed to file the quarterly report for quarters December 2020, March 2021, June 2021, and September, 2021 despite several letters or emails sent to it. Through such acts, it allegedly violated AIF rules.

Under the Sebi rules, Category I, II and III AIFs which do not undertake leverage are required to submit their reports to the markets regulator on quarterly basis in the prescribed format.

Further, Category III AIFs which undertake leverage are required to submit a report to Sebi on a monthly basis.

The reports were supposed to be sent within 7 calendar days from the end of the quarter or month.

In its response to Sebi, GSF Venture Capital Fund said it had not launched any schemes under the fund. Since the fund does not have operations, it was their understanding that they were not required to make any filing to Sebi. Further,when it tried to access the portal, it was deactivated.