Hindenburg Research escalated its feud with India’s stock market regulator Sebi and its chief, Madhabi Puri Buch, alleging conflicts of interest and fresh instances of financial impropriety tied to the Adani Group.
Hindenburg’s fresh salvo soon after Sebi and Buch and her husband vehemently denied allegations of leniency towards business tycoon Gautam Adani and his group of companies. In a joint statement, the Buchs described the claims as “baseless allegations and insinuations” devoid of truth.
Hindenburg, which has been locked in a bitter public dispute with the conglomerate since publishing an explosive report alleging corporate malfeasance and stock manipulation in January last year, cited whistleblower documents to support its claims.
“Sebi Chairperson Madhabi Buch’s response to our report includes several important admissions and raises numerous new critical questions,” the firm said in a statement on X.
Pushing back against the Buchs’ claims of no wrongdoing, Hindenburg alleged that their response to its report essentially confirms that they invested in an obscure Bermuda/Mauritius fund structure alongside money allegedly siphoned by Vinod Adani, the brother of Gautam Adani.
“She [Madhabi Buch] also confirmed the fund was run by a childhood friend of her husband, who at the time was an Adani director. Sebi was tasked with investigating investment funds relating to the Adani matter, which would include funds Ms Buch was personally invested in and funds by the same sponsor which were specifically highlighted in our original report. This is obviously a massive conflict of interest,” the firm said.
The short-seller also accused Buch of maintaining active consulting firms while serving as Sebi chief. Questioning the transparency of Buch’s consulting companies, which she set up during her time in Singapore, the firm noted that one of these companies, Agora Advisory Limited (India), was still 99 per cent owned by Buch and was generating revenue while she oversaw investigations into the Adani Group.
Hindenburg also alleged that Buch used her personal email for business dealings under her husband’s name while serving as a Sebi Whole Time Member.
“Buch’s statement promised a ‘commitment to complete transparency’. Given this, will she publicly release the full list of consulting clients and details of the engagements, both through the offshore Singaporean consulting firm, the Indian consulting firm and any other entity she or her husband may have an interest in? Finally, will the Sebi Chairperson commit to a full, transparent and public investigation into these issues?” Hindenburg asked.
The Buchs and their associated firm, 360-One, denied any wrongdoing, asserting the fund in question never invested in Adani securities. They also maintained that the Buchs held a minor stake in the fund and had no influence over investment decisions.
Sebi, meanwhile, defended its handling of the Adani-Hindenburg matter, saying 23 of 24 investigations are complete, with one nearing closure. The market watchdog blamed the lengthy process on cumbersome enforcement procedures.
The regulator had also initiated its own proceedings against Hindenburg Research, accusing the New York-headquartered firm of misleading disclosures to profit from short selling.
Adani Group refutes Hindenburg’s dubious claims
Adani Group has come forward to strongly deny the recent allegations made by Hindenburg, describing them as “malicious” and “manipulative”.
On Sunday, the conglomerate issued a statement refuting the allegations made by Hindenburg. “The latest allegations by Hindenburg are malicious, mischievous and manipulative selections of publicly available information to arrive at pre-determined conclusions for personal profiteering with wanton disregard for facts and the law,” the company stated.
Opposition attacks Govt
After the report went public, the opposition parties including Congress slammed the Modi government, demanding a joint parliamentary committee probe into the allegations against Buch.
Congress on Sunday (August 11, 2024) 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 (JPC) 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 JPC to investigate the full scope of the “scam”.
Congress chief Mallikarjun Kharge said a JPC inquiry is imperative to probe this “massive scandal”. He alleged that until a JPC inquiry probes the issue, concerns persist that Prime Minister Narendra Modi will continue to “shield his ally, compromising India’s constitutional institutions, painstakingly built over seven decades”.
BJP blasts Opposition
Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Sudhanshu Trivedi on Sunday hit out at the opposition for its attacks on the Narendra Modi government over the new Hindenburg report.
The US-based short seller Hindenburg Research alleged that market regulator Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) chairperson Madhabi Puri Buch and her husband had stakes in obscure offshore funds used in the alleged Adani money siphoning scandal.
