According to a recent investigation by Hindenburg, SEBI chief Madhabi Buch allegedly has investments in offshore companies connected to the alleged financial misdeeds of the Adani Group.
In response to a recent investigation by Hindenburg Research, which claimed that Madhabi Buch, the head of the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI), and her husband had investments in offshore companies connected to the Adani Group’s purported financial misdeeds, the Congress responded on Saturday.
Congress general secretary Jairam Ramesh stated in a statement that SEBI’s “strange reluctance” to look into the “Adani MegaScam” has long been known.
Buch’s financial interest in the monies connected to the alleged financial malfeasance of the Adani Group, according to him, is startling.
Here is our statement on the latest Hindenberg revelations
— Jairam Ramesh (@Jairam_Ramesh) August 10, 2024
Quis Custodiet Ipsos
Custodies pic.twitter.com/D1wGN2uJop
The Expert Committee of the Supreme Court has long pointed out SEBI’s peculiar unwillingness to look into the Adani MegaScam. The reporting requirements pertaining to the ultimate beneficial (i.e., real) ownership of foreign funds were completely eliminated by SEBI in 2019 and diluted in 2018, as that Committee had noted in its report, Ramesh said in the statement.
“The securities market regulator finds conformity with certain requirements in accompanying rules, but suspects misconduct. This has constrained its hands to that degree. The Expert Committee claims that SEBI has drawn a blank globally as a result of this contradiction,” he continued.
According to Ramesh, on August 25, SEBI informed the expert committee of the Supreme Court that it was looking into 13 questionable transactions, but “the probe never bore fruit.”
Ramesh went on to say that the most recent accusation made by Hindenburg Research raises new concerns regarding Gautam Adani’s two 2022 meetings with Buch that happened very soon after she was named SEBI chairwoman. He drew attention to the fact that SEBI was purportedly looking into Adani transactions at the time.
In addition, he stated that the only way to address the “seeming complicity of the highest officials of the land” was to form a Joint Parliamentary Committee to look into the entirety of the “scam” and that the government “must act immediately” to “eliminate all conflicts of interest” in the SEBI investigation of Adani Group-linked firms.
Ramesh had previously mocked Madhabi Buch in a different article by using the Latin phrase “Quis Custodiet Ipsos,” which means “who will guard the guards themselves.”
“Parliament was notified to sit until the evening of August 12th,” he added in addition. It was abruptly adjourned sine die on August 9th, the afternoon of that day. We now understand why.
What the latest Hindenburg report state
The Hindenburg claimed that Madhabi Buch and her husband had hidden interests in mysterious offshore funds in Mauritius and Bermuda—the same places where Gautam Adani’s brother Vinod Adani is rumored to have manipulated the financial markets. According to reports, Madhabi Buch made these investments as early as 2015, which is a long time ago given her appointment as a full-time member of SEBI in 2017 and her promotion to SEBI chairman in March 2022.
According to the article, Buch’s spouse asked to take exclusive management of their finances a few weeks prior to her nomination to SEBI, possibly in an effort to shield her from criticism for her new regulatory position.
It claimed that Dhaval Buch moved the assets out of his wife’s name before the politically delicate appointment by requesting in the letter to “be the sole person authorised to operate the Accounts.”
Eighteen months after releasing its “damning report” on Adani, the US investment research company said that “SEBI has shown a surprising lack of interest in Adani’s alleged undisclosed web of Mauritius and offshore shell entities.”
