Fund Manager and parents ordered to pay Rs 5 crore by market regulator

Fund manager of Deutsche Mutual Fund and his parents paid nearly Rs 5 crore to settle with Sebi a case of alleged front running in the trades of the mutual fund.

The amount remitted by them includes settlement charges, wrongful gains and interest charged on the ill-gotten gains.

Akash Singhania, the fund manager of Deutsche Mutual Fund (DMF) allegedly had knowledge of investment and impending orders of the fund.He had opened four trading accounts for the purpose of front running, through his parents-- Ashok Kumar Singhania and Premlata Singhania.

The couple had access to these trading accounts and were trading ahead of the orders of DMF and thus acted in concert to front run the trades of DMF.

They earned a profit of Rs 1.4 crore Sebi noted and the settlement agreed upon 'without admitting or denying the guilt' included was Rs 5 crore which included the wrongful gains, settlement charges and interest. Sebi, in the settlement order dated December 22, confirmed the credit of the payments.

The proceedings may be restored if any representation made by the applicants in the settlement proceedings is subsequently found to be untrue.