Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) Chairperson Madhabi Puri Buch and her husband Dhaval Buch denied US-based short seller Hindenburg Research’s allegations that they had hidden stakes in offshore entities, located in Bermuda and Mauritius, linked to stock price manipulation and money laundering by the Adani Group.
In a statement, they said that the allegations are devoid of any truth and that their lives and finances were an open book. “All disclosures as required have already been furnished to SEBI over the years. We 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,” it read.
Hindenburg Research had in a release on August 10 alleged that Madhabi and Dhaval Buch had hidden stakes in offshore entities in Bermuda and Mauritius, which are linked to money siphoning by the Adani Group. In a previous report in January 2023 Hindenburg had alleged that Adani “engaged in a brazen stock manipulation and accounting fraud scheme over the course of decades.” Hindenburg said that it suspects SEBI’s unwillingness to take meaningful action against suspect offshore shareholders in the Adani Group may be due to Madhabi Buch’s stakes in the exact same funds used by Vinod Adani, Gautam Adani’s brother.
Madhabi and Dhaval Buch also said they would be issuing a detailed statement in the interest of complete transparency. “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,” read their press statement.
Adani Group also released a statement refuting the allegations. “The latest allegations by Hindenburg are malicious, mischievous and manipulative selections of publicly available information to arrive at predetermined conclusions for personal profiteering with wanton disregard for facts and the law. We completely reject these allegations against the Adani Group which are a recycling of discredited claims that have been thoroughly investigated, proven to be baseless and already dismissed by the Supreme Court in January 2024,” it read.