Friction #18: Franklin Templeton’s brokerage puzzle and Mistry coming off second best in fight with Tatas

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Editor's note: If you thought there were no more skeletons left in Franklin Templeton India’s closet, you need to think again. Having written a fair bit on the unethical behavior of its top management and fund managers in the run-up to the closure of its six debt mutual fund schemes, even I thought I was done with the asset management company for a while. But there is some new information that’s come to light. We will get to it in a bit.  I’d like to state at the outset that the Rs 15,000-odd crore which has come into Franklin Templeton’s six wound up schemes through prepayments, maturities and sales can, by no means, be discounted. However, the narrative needs some course correction here. Returning money to investors without haircuts is not a favour but the bare minimum expected of an AMC. And, by no stretch of imagination, does it give it a clean bill of health with regard to mismanagement and unethical behavior.  The other big event of the past fortnight from this newsletter’s point of view was the culmination of the …