Sebi Settles Case with Gurpreet Singh Dhillon Over Venture Capital Fund Rule Violation

New Delhi, Aug 30 (PTI) Gurpreet Singh Dhillon, who was the director of Vistaar Religare Media Fund, on Friday settled a case of alleged non-winding up of the scheme of the fund with markets regulator Sebi after paying Rs 37 lakh towards the settlement amount.

Vistaar Religare Media Fund was a Sebi registered Venture Capital Fund for the period from July 25, 2008, to July 4, 2017.

The order came after Dhillon filed an application with Sebi proposing to settle the instant proceedings, "without admitting or denying the findings of fact and conclusions of law", through a settlement order.

He paid Rs 35.43 lakh along with legal charges of Rs 1.66 lakh to settle the matter.

"In view of the acceptance of the settlement terms and receipt of settlement amount and legal charges by Sebi, the specified proceedings initiated against the applicant vide Show Cause Notice dated October 25, 2021, are disposed of," the regulator said in its settlement order.

The Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) conducted an inspection of Vistaar Religare Media Fund. Based on the findings of the inspection, a show cause notice was issued to Dhillon on October 25, 2021, alleging violation of Venture Capital Funds rules for non-winding up on expiry of tenure of the scheme of the fund, investing over 33.33 per cent of investible funds into Special Purpose Vehicles and non-redressal of investor complaints, non-submission of periodic reports and non-maintenance of books and records.

Subsequently, Sebi passed an order in April 2023 wherein it was held that the applicant was responsible for the non-winding up of the scheme of the fund.

The applicant filed an appeal before the Securities Appellate Tribunal (SAT) on the ground of not having received the SCN at his current address and SAT, through its ruling in August 2023, remanded the matter to WTM for serving show cause notice and to proceed from there onwards in accordance with law.

After this, the applicant filed the settlement application with the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi).