Axis Mutual Fund case | Fund house submits internal investigation report to SEBI

Axis Mutual Fund (Axis MF) has submitted its internal investigation report to market regulator Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) on the alleged wrongdoings by two of its officials -- Viresh Joshi and Deepak Agrawal.

Axis MF has maintained that it started a suo moto investigation in February 2022. Joshi, who was the chief equity dealer for the fund house, was also a fund manager in five of its schemes - Axis Arbitrage Fund, Axis Banking ETF, Axis Nifty ETF, Axis Technology ETF and Axis Consumption ETF.

Agarwal was an equity research analyst and assistant fund manager of Axis Consumption ETF, Axis Quant Fund and Axis Value Fund.

According to Axis MF, it has strong reasons to believe, based on available evidence, that Joshi had breached securities law. And also reason to believe that Agrawal may have also violated securities laws.

Moneycontrol was first to report that Axis MF was making personnel changes in seven of its schemes as it investigated allegations of wrongdoing.

Axis MF  in its statement said, "Based on the findings so far, we believe the conduct of concerned individuals identified do not have any impact on our liquidity of our operations. Any misconduct concerned by the individuals was outside of and in contravention of our policies and procedures and the training they had received."

It added, "We have followed the required regulatory and compliance guidelines at all points in time and will continue to do so. As a fund house, we will always continue to work in the interest of our investor/stakeholders, whose trust is paramount."

Axis MF, India’s seventh largest mutual fund house with assets worth Rs 1.96 trillion, had sacked Joshi on May 18, and Agrawal on May 20.

The action against them was taken in connection on allegations of wrongdoing.