Hindenburg Research has accused SEBI Chairperson Madhabi Puri Buch and her husband of having stakes in certain offshore entities involved in the alleged Adani money siphoning scandal.
On August 10, Hindenburg Research claimed that whistleblower documents revealed that Madhabi Puri Buch and her husband held interests in obscure offshore entities based in Bermuda and Mauritius, which are allegedly controlled by Vinod Adani, the elder brother of Gautam Adani, and were reportedly used to manipulate funds and inflate stock prices.
The Hindenburg report stated, “We had previously noted Adani’s confidence in operating without fear of serious regulatory intervention, which may be explained by Adani’s relationship with SEBI Chairperson Madhabi Buch.”
In response, Madhabi Puri Buch and her husband, Dhaval Buch, denied the allegations in a joint statement, emphasizing their commitment to transparency and announcing that they would issue a detailed statement soon.
Hindenburg Research also alleged that in 2017, just weeks before Madhabi Buch’s appointment as SEBI Chairperson, her husband wrote to the Mauritius-based fund administrator Trident Trust, requesting to be the sole person authorized to operate the accounts associated with Madhabi Puri Buch’s investment in the Global Dynamic Opportunities Fund (GDOF).
According to the report, an account statement dated February 26, 2018, revealed that the Buchs had a stake in the same Mauritius-registered “cell” of the fund used by Vinod Adani. The total value of their stake was approximately $872,762.25 at the time.
Further, the report alleged that on February 25, 2018, during Madhabi Buch’s tenure as a Whole-Time Member of SEBI, she used her private email to redeem units in the fund through her husband’s name.
Hindenburg Research speculated that SEBI’s reluctance to take significant action against suspect offshore shareholders in the Adani Group might be linked to Chairperson Buch’s involvement with the same funds used by Vinod Adani.
The report also mentioned that from April 2017 to March 2022, while Madhabi Buch served as a Whole-Time Member and later as Chairperson of SEBI, she had a 100% interest in an offshore Singaporean consulting firm called Agora Partners, which she transferred to her husband two weeks after her appointment as SEBI Chairperson.
In January 2023, Hindenburg Research accused the Adani Group of orchestrating “the largest con in corporate history,” alleging that the conglomerate used a network of offshore companies to inflate revenue and manipulate stock prices while accumulating massive debt.
Despite the Adani Group’s strong denials, the report led to a significant plunge in the group’s share values, erasing over $150 billion in market value at their lowest point. However, most of the listed companies have since recovered from these losses.
Following the Hindenburg report, the Supreme Court directed SEBI to finalize its investigation and establish a separate expert panel to examine regulatory lapses. The expert panel did not find any negative findings about Adani, and the Supreme Court concluded that no further investigations beyond SEBI’s were necessary.
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