French asset management company Apicap and two of its managers have been penalized by the AMF Enforcement Committee for violating their professional responsibilities.
The Enforcement Committee issued a €400,000 fine and a warning to asset management company Apicap, a €50,000 fine and a warning to its chairman Alain Esnault, and a €25,000 fine to his predecessor Jérôme Lescure on May 16th, 2023.
The Enforcement Committee dismissed the procedural argument raised by the respondents and found that the exchanges between the management company and the AMF prior to the statement of objections did not involve any unfair actions.
The Committee found that the asset management company failed to comply with their equity requirements; their equity capital was below the regulatory requirement, and monitoring mistakes were made with insufficiently liquid investments.
The Committee also found that the company had charged excessive management fees for certain funds, violating the regulations of the funds, and that they had repeatedly failed to comply with applicable regulatory ratios for funds.
Finally; the Committee found that the management company had not complied with its AML/CTF measures, and that its procedures were inadequate.
The breaches were deemed attributable to Mr Lescure (chairman until 1 Oct 2018) and Mr Esnault (managing director and chairman from 1 Oct 2018).
An appeal may be filed against this decision.