US SHORT-SELLER Hindenburg Research alleged that it suspects SEBI’s unwillingness to act against Adani group may be because of its head Madhabi Puri Buch had stakes in offshore funds linked to the conglomerate - an allegation slammed by the SEBI head as “baseless” while Adani group said it never had any commercial relations with Buch. Hindenburg alleged that Buch and her husband had undisclosed investments in obscure offshore funds in Bermuda and Mauritius, the same entities allegedly used by Vinod Adani - the elder brother of group chairman Gautam Adani - to round-trip funds and inflate stock prices. SEBI in October 2020 began a probe into the shareholding structure of Adani group companies after red flags were raised over high concentration of foreign holdings in the conglomerate’s listed companies. An investigation was launched to determine if the foreign investors are genuine public shareholders or acting as fronts for the promoters.

 

SEBI last year had told a Supreme Court-appointed panel that it was investigating 13 opaque offshore entities that held between 14-20 per cent across five publicly traded stocks of the conglomerate. It hasn’t stated if the two probes have since been completed, something which Hindenburg used to attack the market regulator. Madhabi Puri Buch and her husband Dhaval Buch in a joint statement strongly denied the “baseless allegations and insinuations made in the report”. The same, they said, “are devoid of any truth”.

 

“Our life and finances are an open book,” they said. “It is unfortunate that Hindenburg Research against whom SEBI has taken an enforcement action and issued a show cause notice has chosen to attempt character assassination in response to the same.” Buchs further said they have no hesitation in disclosing any and all financial documents, including those that relate to the period when we were strictly private citizens, to any and every authority that may seek them. While the statement did not talk on the questions Hindenburg raised over SEBI probe, the duo promised to come out with a detailed response. In the wake of the US short-seller Hindenburg Research's allegations against SEBI chairperson Madhabi Buch, the Congress on Sunday said the Government must act immediately to eliminate all conflicts of interest in the regulator’s investigation of the Adani Group and reiterated its demand for a joint parliamentary committee probe into the matter. The opposition party also said the “seeming complicity of the highest officials of the land” can only be resolved by setting up a Joint Parliamentary Committee to investigate the full scope of the ‘scam’.