The Financial Markets Tribunal (FMT) has largely upheld the enforcement action taken by the Dubai Financial Services Authority (DFSA) against Dalma Capital Management Ltd and its senior executive officer Zachary Cefaratti for misleading the authority and failing to conduct Dalma’s business activities with due skill, care and diligence, it said on Tuesday.
Both the company and the executive were fined $162,500 each compared to the fines of $170,000 for Dalma and $300,000 for Cefaratti proposed by the DFSA.
Cefaratti will also be restricted from acting as the senior executive officer of Dalma for two years.
The DFSA had originally proposed orders of prohibition and restriction against Cefaratti. However, in imposing such orders, the FMT decided that they would be suspended for two years on condition that Cefaratti comply with the terms of its order during that period.
Following a four-day hearing in September 2022, on January 31, 2023, the FMT issued its decision confirming that Cefaratti and Dalma provided information to the DFSA that they knew to be false or misleading and omitted to disclose the highly relevant fact that an individual had been trading on the Dalma Unified Return Fund from April to June 2016. Cefaratti was also found to have failed to observe high standards of integrity and deal with the DFSA in an open and cooperative manner.
“Mr Cefaratti didn’t just lie to the DFSA; he continued to lie to them throughout a lengthy investigation and then he lied to the Tribunal and needlessly dragged us all through a rather expensive appeal process. He could easily have “fessed up” and exercised contrition much earlier,” the FMT said.
