Investment Adviser Charged with Defrauding Institutional Investors by Inflating Firm's Assets under Management

The SEC charged Umesh Tandon, the CEO of a Chicago-based investment advisory firm called Simran Capital Management, with lying to potential clients and current clients, including the California Public Employers' Retirement System ("CalPERS") about the firm's assets under management ("AUM"). CalPERS and other institutional investors use AUM as a metric to screen prospective investment advisers soliciting their business. The firm undermined CalPERS' screening process by fraudulently reporting a grossly inflated AUM to obtain its business, and lured in other investors under false pretenses on several occasions. The firm also overstated the AUM in at least four filed Form ADVs.

View Order in full here (links externally to SEC website).See also: Press Release.