Landmark Opportunity Fund, CEO Ashish Joshi Fined Rs10 Lakh for Breach of AIF Norms

Moneylife Digital Team 28 August 2025

Investor Interest

Market regulator Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) has imposed a total penalty of Rs10 lakh on Landmark Opportunity Fund, Landmark Capital Advisors Pvt Ltd and the Fund’s chief executive officer (CEO) and key managerial personnel (KMP) Ashish Joshi for violations of the SEBI Alternative Investment Funds Regulations, 2012.

The order highlights persistent breaches of concentration limits prescribed under the regulations. Landmark Opportunity Fund has been fined Rs5 lakh, Landmark Capital Advisors has been fined Rs3 lakh, while Mr Joshi has been directed to pay Rs2 lakh.

Landmark Opportunity Fund, registered as a category II alternative investment fund (AIF), had launched the landmark return multiplier fund in 2018 with an investable corpus of Rs73.78 crore. During 2019, the Fund invested a total of Rs44.55 crore nearly 60% of its investable funds into a single entity, Sai Krishna Warehousing Pvt Ltd. This investment breached the statutory 25% cap mandated under Regulation 15(1)(c) of the AIF Regulations.

The violation was first flagged in the private placement memorandum (PPM) audit report for FY22-23. SEBI’s subsequent examination confirmed that the Fund had been in continuous breach since August 2019, raising concerns over compliance and risk management practices.

In their defence, the Fund and its manager argued that the breach was inadvertent and arose from unforeseen circumstances. They explained that initial fundraising had progressed with commitments aggregating Rs160 crore, but the collapse of Karvy Private Wealth, which was their primary distributor, led to the withdrawal of commitments.

As a result, the fund corpus shrank to Rs82.89 crore while investment obligations had already been made. They further submitted that the breach had been disclosed in all quarterly reports and compliance test reports and that they had been attempting to divest the investment since 2020.

Efforts to sell assets, including through negotiations with DHL Supply Chain India in 2020 and another buyer in 2023, did not materialise. They also highlighted that no investor complaints were received, no unlawful gains were made and the breach was unintentional.

SEBI, however, rejected these explanations, noting that statutory compliance cannot be overridden by private contracts such as investment agreements. The regulator emphasised that subsequent efforts to divest do not erase the fact of regulatory violation.

SEBI’s adjudicating officer (AO) Jai Sebastian concluded that Landmark Opportunity Fund violated Regulations 15(1)(c) and 20(1). Landmark Capital Advisors failed in its duty under Regulations 15(1)(c), 20(1), 20(2), and 20(5), while Mr Joshi, as a KMP, did not ensure compliance, thereby breaching the Code of Conduct provisions.

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