Sandip Sabharwal, the 'star' fund manager of JM Financial Mutual Fund has vanished into oblivion. Not much has been heard about this ex poster boy of the Indian mutual fund industry. News channels and print media started discussing Sandip Sabharwal in August 2006, not because of his fund management abilities. His name made an appearance on national television because CBI filed a chargesheet against him for his alleged involvement in a scam when he was working for SBI mutual fund. (Read Dalal Street story here http://www.dalalstreet.biz/2006/08/cbi-chargesheets-sbi-fund-managers-in.html)
CBI in its chargesheet had accused Sandip Sabharwal to be hand in gloves with the Big Bull Keten Parikh. Sandip misused his authority as a SBI Mutual Fund manager to fraudulently approve the proposal for purchase of shares of a shady company called Padmini Technologies. The greedy promoters of this company had changed the name of this company form Padmini Polymers to Padmini Technologies.
By the time chargesheet was filed by CBI in August 2006 against Sandip Sabharwal, he had been lured away by Lotus Mutual Fund, a new entrant in the market. The reason why Sandip Sabharwal moved from an established and respected AMC like SBI to Lotus Mutual Fund was probably the greed of higher salary and ESOPs. Lotus Mutual Fund has since closed its shop and its schemes have been acquired by Religare Mutual Fund.
After the chargesheet was filed against Sandip Sabharwal (a man coming from a respected middle class family. His father was a doctor in the Indian Army) Lotus Mutual Fund dropped him like a hot potato. Sandip Sabharwal career in the Indian mutual fund industry seemed over. However he was dangled a lifeline by none other than Nimesh Kampani (who is a investment banker and a billionaire). Nimesh Kampani hired Sandip Sabharwal to run the show at JM Mutual Fund (which is a second rate Indian asset management company or mutual fund). Since then Nimesh Kampany has also come under the cloud. In January 2009 Andhra Pradesh government issued a lookout notice for alleged defrauding of customers in Nagarjuna Finance Limited. Kampani challenged the Andhra high court ruling in Supreme Court. The honorable Supreme Court dismissed his petition.
Sandip Sabharwal did not mend his naughty ways and continued his punting behavior putting investors' money at risk. JM Mutual fund launched a series on NFO to cash on Sandip Sabharwal's name. The schemes were marketed by paying high commissions to mutual fund brokers. The brokers were lured by foreign trips to places like Bangkok and Pataya in Thailand. Crores of rupees was mobilised on back of such aggressive marketing.
The mutual fund portfolios created by Sandip Sabharwal had no substance. He had thrown caution to the winds. The judgement day came in January 2008 when Indian stocks started taking a beating on back of global financial meltdown. Sandip Sabharwal had nowhere to hide as the NAV (Net Asset Value) of the schemes managed by him started falling like a rock.
One fateful day the name of Sandip Sabharwal disappeared from the rolls of JM Mutual Fund. That name has since then resurfaced in Prabhudas Liladhar Pvt Ltd, a brokerage firm of no great standing in the market. Sandip is an example of the kind of trouble a man is suit is capable of creating. He has lost a great amount of wealth for his investors. The pain is especially more for the retail investor who trusted him.
Sandip Sabharwal has a dishonorable past and he plays with investors' money with gay abandon. It is best for investors to avoid him like plague.
6 comments:
Media should be responsible for making heroes out of this young blood(read money)-sucker, now why nobody in media is asking this pertinent question. I lost 3.7 lakhs in JM mutual funds. But i think the real culprit are people like me who want to make quick bucks and end up investing life time earnings by trusting words from people who don't have long term standing in the market.
you seemed to have done a PHD on SANDIP SABHARWAL.
To Anonymous
Really? If you call this small effort a PhD, you will run out of words for my future blogs. All fund managers and their actions and their funds will be analysed in this blog without bias or passion. Your comments will be appreciated.
I wish you all the luck, let me see how this Financial world reacts when a normal citizen take it on ....
you sound like a highly cynical person who cannot see good in anything in this world.
u sound like a very negative person that is why u see negativity all around u. you think that everybody is bad . won't be visiting ur blog again so don't bother to answer this one.
about you shooting ur bad sick mouth about other people let me tell u nobody is bothered. but if ur sick mind gets any relief from putting ur foot in ur mouth , than please go ahead with ur sick plans.
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