Last Updated on 11/08/2024 by wccexam Desk
Last year, American short seller firm Hindenburg released a report making serious allegations against Indian billionaire Gautam Adani, while this year too, it has targeted market regulator SEBI by including Adani. In its new report, Hindenburg has claimed a link between the Adani Group and SEBI chief Madhabi Puri Buch and alleged that documents obtained from the whistleblower show that the SEBI chairman had a stake in the offshore entities used in the Adani money siphoning scandal.
However, now a clarification has been given by the SEBI Chairperson in this matter, in which he has said that all these are baseless and it is merely an attempt to defame him.
‘There is no truth in Hindenburg’s allegations…’
The report released by Hindenburg on Saturday claimed that whistleblower documents reveal that Madhabi Buch and her husband Dhawal Buch opened their account with IPE Plus Fund 1 in Singapore on June 5, 2015. The couple’s total investment in it is estimated at $ 10 million. Hindenburg alleged that the offshore Mauritius fund was set up by a director of the Adani Group through India Infoline and is registered in tax haven Mauritius.
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Completely rejecting all these allegations made by the American short seller, SEBI Chairperson Madhabi Puri Buch and her husband Dhawal Buch said in a statement issued early Sunday morning that the allegations made in the Hindenburg report of August 10 are baseless and there is no truth in them. Our life and finances are like an open book. Whatever disclosures we needed to make, all that information has been given to SEBI in the past years.
‘This is an attempt in response to SEBI’s action’
Madhabi Puri Buch further said that we have no hesitation in disclosing any financial document, including those documents which relate to the period when we were completely ordinary citizens. Any officer can ask for them. The SEBI chief further said in his statement that it is unfortunate that Hindenburg Research, against which SEBI has taken enforcement action and issued a show cause notice, has now tried to defame us in response to the same. He said that we will issue a detailed statement in due time with complete transparency.
What is special in Hindenburg’s report?
It is noteworthy that in a blogpost, 18 months after its research report on Adani Group Chairman Gautam Adani, Hindenburg has made not one but several serious allegations against the SEBI chief and her husband. Among these, the Hindenburg research report claims that SEBI Chairperson Madhabi Puri Buch and her husband Dhawal Buch took stakes in funds in Bermuda and Mauritius, which are tax haven countries, and these two funds were also used by Gautam Adani’s elder brother Vinod Adani.
Accused of earning huge money through consulting firm
Hindenburg’s report clearly states that we suspect that SEBI did not take strict action against offshore shareholders associated with the Adani Group because there may be collusion among them. It states that Madhabi Puri Buch was a 99% stakeholder in a consulting firm Agora Advisory, but two weeks before being appointed as SEBI’s chairperson on March 16, 2022, she transferred her shares in the company to her husband Dhawal Buch. Her husband Dhawal Buch is a director in this company. If we look at the company’s annual report, it earned Rs 1.98 crore from consulting in FY2022, which is 4.4 times more than Madhabi Puri Buch’s salary as a whole-time member of SEBI.
Source (PTI) (NDTV) (HINDUSTANTIMES)