Hindenburg Report: Cong Demands Probe Into Adani Scam, TMC Wants SEBI Chief To Resign

New Delhi: After the latest Hindenburg report alleged that SEBI’s Chairperson, Madhabi Buch, had stake in obscure offshore entities used in Adani Money siphoning scandal and hence didn’t act on the firm’s previous report against the conglomerate, the Congress demanded probe into the alleged scam.

The Congress on Saturday said the Hindenburg revelations only reinforced its demand for setting up a “joint parliamentary committee to investigate the full scope of the Adani mega scam.” The Trinamool Congress demanded the resignation of SEBI chairperson.

“This raises fresh questions about Gautam Adani’s two 2022 meetings in quick succession with Ms Buch shortly after she became SEBI chairperson. Recall that SEBI was supposedly investigating Adani transactions at the time,” Congress leader Jairam Ramesh said in a statement released by his party.

Mahua Maitra, the TMC MP—who had been vocal about the alleged Adani Group scam—took to social media to lambast the SEBI Chairperson. “In true Adani style – even SEBI Chairman is investor in his group. Crony Capitalism at its finest.
@CBiHeadquartersv& @Dir_ED- will you be filing POCA and PMLA cases or not?” she wrote on X.

Last year, the research firm had published a report accusing the Adani Group of insider trading and stock market violations. The January 2023 report had caused a significant drop in Adani Group stock prices.
The previous report allegedly provided evidence of a vast network of offshore shell entities controlled by Gautam Adani’s brother, Vinod Adani, and close associates.

Know the allegations against SEBI Chairperson

According to the firm, the current SEBI Chairperson and her husband, Dhaval Buch, had hidden stakes in the exact same obscure offshore Bermuda and Mauritius funds, found in the same complex nested structure, used by Vinod Adani.
Madhabi Buch and her husband Dhaval Buch first appeared to have opened their account with IPE Plus Fund 1 on June 5th, 2015 in Singapore, the report stated.

A declaration of funds, signed by a principal at IIFL states that the source of the investment is “salary” and the couple´s net worth is estimated at $10 million, the firm claims. Madhabi was appointed as a whole time member of the SEBI in April, 2017, when she was managing the mutual funds portfolio.

‘Madhabi’s husband transferred all funds in his name before her appointment’

“On March 22nd, 2017, just weeks ahead of that politically sensitive appointment, Madhabi’s husband, Dhaval Buch, wrote to Mauritius fund administrator Trident Trust, according to documents we received from a whistleblower. The email was regarding his and his wife’s investment in the Global Dynamic Opportunities Fund (“GDOF”),” the report cites.

“In the letter, Dhaval Buch requested to “be the sole person authorised to operate the Accounts”, seemingly moving the assets out of his wife’s name ahead of the politically sensitive appointment,” it further adds.
It further alleged that on February 25, 2018, during Buch’s tenure as a Whole-Time Member of SEBI, she wrote to India Infoline using her private Gmail account, to redeem the units in the fund. However, both Madhabi and her husband have rubbished such allegations and dubbed those ‘baseless.’

‘SEBI had drawn blank in its Adani probe’

Earlier, the Supreme Court had rejected the demand for a CBI or court-monitored probe into the allegations raised against the Adani Group in the Hindenburg report.
To this, the firm said, “the Supreme Court said that SEBI had drawn a blank’ in its investigations into who funded Adani’s offshore shareholders. If SEBI really wanted to find the offshore fund holders, perhaps the SEBI Chairperson could have started by looking in the mirror.”