HT Bureau
GUWAHATI, Aug 11: SEBI chairperson Madhabi Puri Buch and her husband, Dhaval Buch, strongly denied Hindenburg Research’s claims that she held stakes in offshore entities linked to Adani group companies.
In their statement on Sunday, Madhabi and Dhaval Buch denied the claims made by Hindenburg Research.
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“There are certain allegations made against SEBI that will be addressed by the institution independently,” the release stated.
“The investment in the fund referred to in the Hindenburg report was made in 2015 when both were private citizens living in Singapore, almost two years before Madhabi joined SEBI as a Whole Time Member,” the statement further added.
According to the statement, the decision to invest in the fund was influenced by Chief Investment Officer Anil Ahuja, Dhaval’s childhood friend from school and IIT Delhi, who, with his background as an ex-employee of Citibank, J.P. Morgan, and 3i Group plc, has had a long and distinguished career in investing.
“As confirmed by Mr. Ahuja, at no point did the fund invest in any bond, equity, or derivative of any Adani group company,” the statement read.
The statement also addressed Dhaval’s appointment as Senior Advisor to Blackstone Private Equity in 2019. The Buchs clarified that this role was based on Dhaval’s expertise in supply chain management and was publicly known long before Madhabi became SEBI Chairperson.
After his appointment, the Blackstone Group was immediately added to Madhabi’s recusal list at SEBI to avoid any conflict of interest.
The couple also noted that over the past two years, SEBI has issued more than 300 circulars, including initiatives to ease business processes, all of which were approved by SEBI’s board after extensive public consultation, not solely by the SEBI Chairperson. The insinuations that some of these matters related to the REIT industry were favors to any specific party are described as malicious and motivated.
According to the statement, the two consulting firms set up by Madhabi during her time in Singapore—one in India and one in Singapore—were rendered dormant upon her appointment to SEBI. These companies and her shareholding in them were explicitly disclosed to SEBI.
After Dhaval retired from Unilever in 2019, he started his own consultancy practice through these companies. His expertise in supply chain management enabled him to work with prominent clients in the Indian industry.
“Thus, linking accruals in these companies to Madhabi’s current government salary is malicious,” the statement said. It also noted that when the shareholding of the Singapore entity was transferred to Dhaval, this was disclosed not only to SEBI but also to Singaporean and Indian tax authorities.
“Hindenburg has been served a show-cause notice for a variety of violations in India. It is unfortunate that instead of responding to the notice, they have chosen to attack the credibility of SEBI and attempt to assassinate the character of the SEBI Chairperson,” the statement concluded.
