Three senior officials of Fortis along with Religare Finvest pay 4.3 Cr to settle a case with SEBI

New Delhi: Three senior officials and directors of Fortis Hospital namely Aditya Vij, Sandeep Puri and Balinder Singh Dhillon along with Religare Finvest Ltd paid Rs 4.34 crore to SEBI (Securities and Exchange Board of India) to settle a case related to the diversion of Fortis Healthcare's funds by its promoters and related entities. Puri being the chief financial officer of Fortis Healthcare Ltd (FHL) and Dhillon its non-independent director.

 The settlement included Rs 93.50 lakh each for Balinder Singh Dhillon and Sandeep Puri, Rs 65 lakh for Aditya Vij and Rs 1.82 crore for Religare Finvest. The respective amounts, after the high-powered advisory committee's recommendations and SEBI's whole-time members' approval, were remitted by them in January.

An investigation was initiated by SEBI in the matter of FHL after an article published in February 2018 said its promoters have taken at least Rs 500 crore out of FHL and that its statutory auditor had refused to sign off on the company's second-quarter results.

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The independent directors were alleged to have aided in the misuse and diversion of public shareholders' funds through three borrower companies for the benefit of RHC Holding and consequently, Malvinder Mohan Singh and Shivinder Mohan Singh.

They had allegedly failed to carry out adequate due diligence and exercise independent judgment with respect to the grant of loans/ investments by Fortis Hospitals to the three borrower companies.

Besides, Puri had issued a misleading CFO certificate in the annual reports of FHL during the investigation period which stated that "the financials of FHL presented true and fair view of its affairs and not containing any misleading statement".

"It is hereby ordered that this settlement order disposes of the aforesaid adjudication proceedings initiated against the applicants viz. Aditya Vij, Sandeep Puri, Balinder Singh Dhillon and Religare Finvest Limited vide SCN (show-cause notice) dated April 9, 2021," SEBI stated. 

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