Winding Up - The Wine Investment Fund Limited (2023-03-06)

Summary

This is a public enforcement notice from the Bermuda Monetary Authority announcing that it successfully petitioned the Supreme Court of Bermuda to wind up The Wine Investment Fund Limited, a Standard Fund authorised under the Investment Funds Act 2006. Joint provisional liquidators were appointed in February 2023, and a winding-up order was issued on 3 March 2023 following a petition hearing.

• Audited financials: The Fund failed to prepare and file audited financial statements within six months of its year-ends for fiscal years 2016 through 2022, in breach of Section 14(1)(a) of the IF Act.
• Custodian requirement: The Fund failed to appoint an independent custodian to safeguard unallocated cash as directed by the Authority, in breach of Section 14(1)(c).
• Prudent business conduct: The Fund failed to conduct its business prudently, including making an impermissible loan to a related party (Lilliput Holdings Limited) that was not repaid in full, breaching Section 4A(2) and the Minimum Criteria for Licensing.
• Offering document updates: The Fund failed to update its Offering Document to prohibit affiliate loans and to reflect material changes such as replacement of administrators, fund managers, and director resignations, breaching Sections 4 and 8 of the Investment Fund Offering Document Rules 2019.

The notice is informational, documenting completed enforcement action and identifying the joint provisional liquidators (Michael Morrison and Charles Thresh of Teneo (Bermuda) Limited) as points of contact for questions about the liquidation. It does not itself impose new ongoing obligations on other regulated entities but signals the Authority's enforcement priorities regarding fund governance, custody, and disclosure compliance.

Applies to

investment funds, standard funds, fund administrators, fund directors