Is there any way to validate how much capital a fund has really raised, say on a govt. platform? What is the risk of a fund potentially inflating this number in their marketing materials or calls?
No.
Of course there is a risk that a fund will lie to you. Most funds won’t like most of the time, of course, but there’s no way to be absolute about anything. These are private equity funds - thus, by definition, private. You have to go with reputation and gut feel. That’s all there is. That and the management regulations. They have to obey the management regulations because those are reviewed by CMVM as part of the setup, and failure to obey those is fraud.
This is one of the core problems of the whole thing. Few people have experience with private equity and how it works.