Mumbai : An independent investigation into the alleged harassment of a whistle-blower at Invesco Asset Management India Ltd concluded that it was a case of human resource process violations, not harassment, two people told the development.
The whistle-blower, who worked as a fixed income fund manager with the fund house for eight years, was handed the pink slip last year when he filed a complaint against Invesco MF for irregularities in the management of fixed income schemes.
After the whistle-blower moved the Bombay High Court in the first week of April, Invesco, which is under regulatory scrutiny, launched an independent investigation into allegations of harassment, and Linkletters, a global law firm, and Indian law firm Panag appointed to Babu, who specializes in compliance and investigation.
“The findings of the report are part of court filings in the Bombay High Court in a suit filed by whistleblowers who alleged that he was fired for blowing whistles on mismanagement in Invesco MF’s fixed income schemes. But the findings of these independent investigations show that that they were fired for their misconduct, but that involved a violation of the HR process,” said one of the two people, who demanded anonymity.
As an interim relief, the whistleblower has sought a court’s direction to the Securities and Exchange Board of India not to declare him ‘fit and not fit’, the other person also sought anonymity.
According to the Bombay High Court website, the whistleblower filed suit in the first week of April against seven entities including Invesco MF, Invesco Ltd, Chief Executive Saurabh Nanavate, Ketan Ugankar (COO and CFO), Kedar Vilankar (Director, Head HR) . Suresh Jhakotia (compliance and risk head) and fixed income chief Vikas Garg.
However, the matter has not come up for hearing so far.
As part of its court filing, Invesco listed the deadline for his dismissal. The second person said that it alleged that the whistleblower was being reviewed since 2019 as his conduct temporarily barred Invesco from the Electronic Bidding Platform (EBP) of the NSE.
“He failed to record certain transactions on NSE’s EBP, due to which Invesco was barred from the platform. This garnered a review on Whistleblower. However, as soon as Covid-19 hit, the fund house failed to take the review to its logical conclusion,” he said.
The first person said, “In November 2020, management learned that the whistleblower was having maladaptive issues, following an abusive phone call to another employee.”
After this incident, the HR department of Invesco started investigation. “During the investigation, certain human resource procedures appear to have been violated,” the second person said. On 19 July 2021, Invesco MF called whistleblowers for its first termination meeting. “To which he did not come,” he said. On July 22, he filed a whistleblower complaint. “After which there was a second termination meeting, where he decided not to say that he is a whistleblower. He was later fired for the reason,” he said.
“Invesco is arguing that the allegation of retaliation against the whistleblower is baseless. However, since there are violations of the HR process, a settlement may be proposed without prejudice,” the first person said.
Mint contacted a lawyer representing the whistleblower, but he declined to comment as the matter is pending. Email queries sent to Invesco on Monday and subsequent reminders on Tuesday went unanswered.
In an earlier statement, Invesco MF said: “As appropriate for a global financial services company, Invesco maintains policies and procedures to investigate allegations of unfair conduct received from any source. Handles matters appropriately in line with global best practices, including global monitoring and independent and impartial review. As part of corporate policy, it would be inappropriate for us to disclose personal or employment details of our employees.”