Sebi examines phones, laptops of mutual fund executives in inspections: Report

This comes as in the past 12 months, five top mutual funds have been inspected with mobile phones of some top executives accessed by Sebi.

Sebi reportedly conducted surprise inspections which involved examination of digital devises including mobile phones, iPads and laptops of top mutual fund executives. This comes as in the past 12 months, five top mutual funds have been inspected with mobile phones of some top executives accessed by Sebi. Moneycontrol reported citing people in the know that the “inspections are different from the search and seizure operations faced by Quant Mutual Fund on June 28.”

SEBI logo outside the regulators’s office. (HT photo)

The report added citing sources, “These are what Sebi internally terms as “thematic inspections” wherein they inspect records of multiple mutual funds to obtain information on block deals, concurrent trades, broker communications, among others. The idea behind seizing data is to analyse patterns to see if there are any aberrations or seemingly odd practices that need to be scrutinised further.”

These physical inspections are without prior notice and involve an element of surprise, sources told the outlet.

One of the unnamed AMC chieftains told Moneycontrol, “Information spreads fact. People who need to reset their phones have already done so. But even if you have nothing to hide professionally, access to personal digital devices is disturbing."