SEC bans, fines former fund manager for defrauding two SPACs and private issuer
Ganesh H. Betanabhatla, who previously managed private equity funds through his now-defunct Houston-based firm, Ramas Capital Management, LLC, has agreed to settle charges brought by the Securities and Exchange Commission.
The SEC alleges that Betanabhatla defrauded three issuers by committing to purchase $263.5 million of their securities on behalf of investment funds he managed when he and the funds did not have the money to invest.
According to the SEC’s complaint, filed in the United Stated District Court for the District of Nebraska, Betanabhatla hid the fact that the funds he claimed to manage had no money to invest by falsifying key documents and emails that he provided to the issuers, and lying to one issuer about having $500 million to invest.
The SEC alleges that none of the $263.5 million in commitments that Betanabhatla made was funded, leaving the issuers to fill the gap in capital they thought they had secured. As alleged, two of the issuers that Betanabhatla defrauded were special purpose acquisition companies, or SPACs, and the third was a private company.
Betanabhatla, without admitting or denying the allegations in the SEC’s complaint, consented to the entry of a final judgment, subject to court approval, that would permanently enjoin him from violating the antifraud provisions of Section 10(b) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 and Rule 10b-5 thereunder, order him to pay a $250,000 civil penalty, and impose a five-year officer-and-director bar on him.