I-T dept raids proprietary trading firm Graviton as govt steps up scrutiny

India’s regulatory crackdown on fast-growing trading firms has intensified in recent months

India’s tax authorities have raided the local offices of Graviton Research Capital LLP as the country steps up scrutiny of trading firms.

The raid at Graviton’s offices near New Delhi began at the start of this week and is set to conclude Thursday, according to people familiar with the operation who asked not to be identified because the matter is private. Officials seized documents and sought access to data, the people said.

“Graviton Research Capital operates with the highest standards of financial integrity and in full compliance with all applicable laws and regulations,” the firm said in a statement. “Recent media suggestions of impropriety are completely unfounded and incorrect. We are fully cooperating with the agencies in the ongoing review.”

An email sent to India’s tax department wasn’t immediately answered. Business World reported the raid earlier.

India’s regulatory crackdown on fast-growing trading firms has intensified in recent months. The country’s securities watchdog in early July issued a temporary order against Jane Street Group LLC, accusing the US firm of manipulating prices in India’s cash equities market to benefit its outsized positions in much more liquid index options, an allegation the company has denied.

The Graviton raid wasn’t related to Jane Street, the people said. It was tied to the tax department’s own intelligence based on similar cases last year, they said.

While Graviton has not been accused of any wrongdoing so far, its trading raised red flags for its high volume and tax payments, the people said. Officials are also reviewing crypto trades, they said.

The firm declared after-tax profit of 10.1 billion rupees ($115 million) in the financial year ending March 2024, a 67% jump over a year earlier, according to the latest annual filing. Total income surged nearly 41% to 49.6 billion rupees.

Tax payable increased by 8.6% to 1.6 billion rupees. The company also made 5.4 billion rupees in tax provisions during the year, 70% higher than the year before.

Graviton was founded by Ankit Gupta and Nishil Gupta, both graduates from the Indian Institute of Technology Delhi, according to their LinkedIn profiles. The latter is an alumnus of Millennium Management spinoff WorldQuant. The firm has offices near New Delhi in Gurugram, as well as Gujarat, India, and Singapore, according to its website.

Its Indian and Singapore entities do not overlap in trading, said a person with knowledge of the matter. Its Indian entity trades only locally and does not trade crypto currencies, the person added. The Singapore entity specializes in other Asian markets and global trades.

In July, India’s income tax officials surveyed the Mumbai office of Nuvama Wealth Management Ltd., the local trading partner of Jane Street, as part of an ongoing investigation into alleged market manipulation involving the firm.

Jane Street was accused of incurring mostly losses in India local trading while booking option gains from its outfits elsewhere. Certain jurisdictions, such as Singapore, have tax treaties with India that effectively lower trading firms’ levies.

“Current probes are pulling offshore profits back into view,” said Kher Sheng Lee, co-head of Asia Pacific at the Alternative Investment Management Association, which represents hedge and private credit funds globally. “Cross-border structures and tax treaties face heightened scrutiny.”

Authorities are also reading deep into firms’ economic intent. “Rationale is the new compliance,” he added. “Substance must match structure.”