DHAKA — The Bangladesh Securities and Exchange Commission has ordered Vanguard Asset Management Ltd. to return invested funds to a mutual fund after finding two investments were made in violation of securities laws, and threatened significant fines if the firm fails to comply.
To protect the interests of fund investors, the firm has been ordered to deposit or return 5.74 crore taka (about $4.7 million) to the relevant fund within 30 days. If it fails to do so, a fine of 6.75 crore taka will be imposed.
The decisions were taken at the BSEC’s 1,012th commission meeting on May 5, chaired by Chairman Khondoker Rashed Maksood.
The meeting was told that in 2013, Vanguard Asset Management Ltd. invested a total of 1.5 crore taka in 600,000 ordinary shares of Bengal Poly and Paper Sack Ltd. through the Vanguard AML Rupali Bank Balanced Fund in violation of securities laws.
In light of that, the firm has been ordered to deposit or return 5.74 crore taka to the fund within 30 days.
Failure to do so will result in a 6.75 crore taka fine.
Violations were also found in a 2017 investment of 6 crore taka in 4.8 million ordinary shares of AFC Health Ltd. from the same fund.
In that case, 14.85 crore taka (about $12.1 million) must be returned to the fund within 30 days, or a 16 crore taka fine will be imposed.
Any fines imposed must be paid as the firm’s own liability within seven days of the 30-day deadline lapsing, the commission said.
Failure to pay the fines on time will trigger an additional fine of 10,000 taka per day.
Separately, the Investment Corporation of Bangladesh (ICB) was fined 15 lakh taka for failing to perform its duties as trustee of the mutual fund.
The commission also decided to refer Malek Siddiqui Wali and Co., Chartered Accountants, to the Financial Reporting Council for failing to properly disclose a 99 percent provision on the investment in its audit report. BSS
বাংলায় মূল প্রতিবেদন পড়ুন · Read the original Bengali report