Franklin asks unitholders not to believe unsubstantiated rumours

Franklin Templeton President Sanjay Sapre has asked unitholders not to believe unsubstantiated rumours and baseless accusations made by CFMA .

"The press release issued by CFMA citing the FIR, is replete with various misleading and baseless allegations, besides being inappropriate, as the matter is currently subjudice. We are not aware of the antecedents of CFMA and as admitted by them in their original complaint, none of their members were unitholders in the six impacted schemes.”

He added that the books of the six impacted schemes are regularly audited by internal auditors, statutory auditors, auditors appointed by the regulators etc. and none of them have ever made any observation regarding misutilization of funds by the schemes.


Sapre pointed out that CFMA has previously made similar misleading and baseless allegations against Franklin Templeton and the industry – for example, suggesting that unitholders in the scheme may face up to an 80% haircut, or that winding up of schemes by Franklin Templeton will lead to substantial losses for unitholders across all debt schemes in the industry.

As per a press release by CFMA, the Economic Offences Wing (EOW) registered a first information report (FIR) against Franklin Templeton Asset Management, Franklin Templeton Trustees and their top management personnel, after investigating a complaint by Cfma in the interest of investors whose Rs 28,000 crore are stuck after Franklin Templeton shut down 6 schemes earlier in April this year.