Buch and her husband Dhaval Buch have been charged by the short seller of having investments in offshore companies connected to the alleged financial misdeeds of the Adani Group.
US-based short seller Hindenburg Research claimed on Saturday, citing documents from whistleblowers, that Madhabi Buch, the head of market regulator SEBI (Securities and Exchange Board of India), and her spouse Dhaval Buch owned shares in offshore companies connected to the Adani Group’s purported financial misdeeds.
Gautam Adani, the third richest person in the world, was accused by Hindenburg Research in January 2023 of orchestrating the “biggest con in corporate history,” a claim he refuted. Subsequently, the Indian Supreme Court ordered SEBI to look into the accusations made against Adani later that year.
The market regulator, SEBI, informed a Supreme Court-appointed panel that it looked into 13 opaque offshore firms that controlled 14% to 20% of the conglomerate’s five publicly listed equities. SEBI had been looking into the Adani Group long before the Hindenburg report. It hasn’t said if two of its unfinished investigations have been finished though.
This most recent Hindenburg discovery states, “Madhabi and Dhaval Buch had hidden stakes in the exact same obscure offshore Bermuda and Mauritius funds.”
Here are 10 key highlights of the report:
1.) It is said that Madhabi and Dhaval Buch held investments in offshore companies linked to the financial misdeeds of the Adani Group.
(2.) Vinod Adani, Gautam’s older brother, utilized these organizations as a part of a network to launder money.
- Potential conflicts of interest raise “questions” about SEBI’s impartiality.
(4.) It conducted “lenient” inquiries of the Adani Group.
(5.) Questions posed about the leadership of the market regulator’s “transparency.”
6.) The alleged offshore money had intricate arrangements and were not well-known.
- The Adani Group’s lack of response has been called “suspicious.”
- A key component of the Adani money-siphoning issue was offshore funds.
9.) The focus is on the purported relationship between Buch’s private interests and her position as a regulator.
- SEBI’s Adani Group probes require “greater scrutiny.”
