Reacting to the latest Hindenburg Research report, the chairperson of the Securities and Exchange Board of India, Madhabi Puri Buch, and her husband, Dhaval Buch, lambasted the US-based short seller on Sunday for reportedly trying to discredit the credibility of the market regulator and running a smear campaign against its top leadership.
On Saturday, Hindenburg released a new report claiming obscure offshore entities connected to the Adani scandal involved Madhabi and her husband. The allegation comes after an earlier report by Hindenburg, of about 18 months ago, which had claimed the Adani Group to be the mastermind behind "the largest con in corporate history", leading to a precipitous fall in the market value of the conglomerate.
In a detailed statement issued on Sunday evening, the Buchs have disputed these claims, saying their investment in a fund managed by IIFL Wealth Management was made as private citizens based in Singapore, two years prior to Madhabi's appointment as whole-time member of SEBI.
It is also alleged that during the tenure of Madhabi Buch as a senior advisor to Blackstone and, thereafter, as a SEBI official, Blackstone-backed Mindspace and Nexus Select Trust, the second and fourth REIT, respectively, got approval from SEBI to go public.
It is also alleged in the report that during the advisory period of Dhaval Buch with Blackstone, important regulatory changes for REITs were proposed, approved, and facilitated by SEBI.
The Buchs, however, countered these allegations stating that Dhaval has never had any dealings with Blackstone's Real Estate division.
"All SEBI regulations are approved by its Board, not solely by the Chairperson and only after wide-ranging public consultation. The insinuations that certain REIT-related matters were favour to specific parties are baseless and malafide," they said.
They further said that two consulting firms-one in India and one in Singapore-which were started by her during her stay in Singapore, became defunct immediately after she was appointed SEBI. "These companies along with her shareholdings, were fully disclosed to SEBI," they added.
Their statement also said that Hindenburg had been issued a show-cause notice for various violations in India. "It is regrettable that, instead of responding to the notice, they have chosen to target SEBI's credibility and launch a character assassination against its Chairperson," they concluded.
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