Former chiefs of India's CARE Ratings found not guilty after misconduct inquiry

ICRA

12/04/2022 15:09

MUMBAI, April 12 (Reuters) - An independent inquiry has
found former top executives of India's CARE Ratings Ltd
 CREI.NS  not guilty of potential misconduct, the company said
in a regulatory filing on Tuesday.
    The charges against Rajesh Mokashi, erstwhile managing
director and CEO, and S.B. Mainak, former chairman, of
interference with the ratings process and influencing the
ratings could not be substantiated, the company said. 
    The ratings agency had appointed a former judge of the top
court to conduct an independent inquiry, which submitted its
findings to the company's board on April 11.
    Mokashi declined to comment while Mainak could not 
immediately be reached for comment. 
    In 2019, the company had sent the executives on leave after
an anonymous complaint against the officials was sent to the
Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI).
    Executives of other ratings agencies such as ICRA Ltd, the
Indian unit of Moody's Investors Service, had also come under
scrutiny after the collapse in 2018 of the shadow bank behemoth
Infrastructure Leasing and Financial Services (IL&FS), which
sent shockwaves across India's financial system.
    The ratings agencies had given IL&FS ratings that reflected
the highest levels of creditworthiness, and the company's sudden
collapse triggered fears about contagion in the financial sector
and spooked investors in both the equity and debt markets.

 (Reporting by Nupur Anand; Editing by Susan Fenton)
 ((Nupur.Anand@thomsonreuters.com; +9122 68414388;))