Capital market watchdog Sebi today imposed Rs 3 crore penalty on Alderbrooke Portfolio Management Services and its two directors for conducting business without the requisite authorisation.
The Securities and Exchange Board of India said Alderbrooke did not have any certificate of registration from the capital market regulator to act as portfolio manager.
According to Sebi, the company "while acting as an unregistered intermediary had collected more than Rs 24 crore from innocuous clients/investors and had put the investors at great risk".
Consequently, in separate orders, the market regulator has imposed "a penalty of Rs 1 crore" each on Alderbooke and its directors -- Anandkumar Kanubhai Ravat and Jalpeshkumar Amrutlal Makwana.
Sebi noted that the two directors were in charge of, and responsible for, the conduct of the business of the company.
The probe found that Alderbrooke had more than 2,000 clients registered with it, comprising of both individual and corporate, who had invested amounts ranging between Rs 10,000 to Rs 50 lakh with it.
It also found that total assets under management with it as on July 31, 2013 amounted to Rs 24.38 crores of which Rs 19.31 crore were from corporate and rest from individual clients.
The regulator observed that Alderbrooke was incorporated on March 3, 2010 and investors interested in availing the services of the company were made to enter into an MoU with it, enabling it to manage their funds.
Sebi on receipt of a complaint had come to know that Alderbrooke was offering financial products and services to investors with guaranteed returns following which the regulator had sought details from the company about its business.
Alderbrooke had submitted the details sought by Sebi and said that it neither offered any product with guaranteed monthly return nor did it provide any kind of portfolio management services.
