U.S. based short-seller Hindenburg Research released a new report on Saturday alleging that the chairperson of India’s market regulator (SEBI) Madhabi Puri Buch previously held investments in certain offshore funds that were also used by Adani Group. The report said that these obscure financial systems were allegedly used in the “money siphoning scandal.”
Hindenburg’s report sparked fresh criticism from India’s opposition political parties who demanded a parliamentary probe.
Citing whistleblower documents, Hindenburg stated Madhabi P Buch and her husband Dhaval Buch held stakes in an offshore fund where a substantial amount of money was invested by associates of Vinod Adani, brother of Gautam Adani, who is chairman of Adani Group.
However, the Adani Group denied all the allegations made in the report.
“The Adani Group has absolutely no commercial relationship with the individuals or matters mentioned in this calculated deliberate effort to malign our standing. We remain steadfastly committed to transparency and compliance with all legal and regulatory requirements,” the conglomerate said reacting to the latest Hindenburg report.
“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. 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 Hon’ble Supreme Court in January 2024,” the Adani Group said in its statement.
Moreover, calling Hindenburg a ‘discredited short seller’, the Indian conglomerate said that the allegations are ‘no more than red herrings’.
“For a discredited short-seller under the scanner for several violations of Indian securities laws, Hindenburg’s allegations are no more than red herrings thrown by a desperate entity with total contempt for Indian laws,” the Adani Group said.
Earlier in a late night press statement, the SEBI chief and her husband Dhaval Buch dismissed Hindenburg’s allegations as baseless and said that the US-based company is attempting character assassination in response to a show-cause notice issued by the regulator in the Adani controversy.
“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,” the husband-wife duo said in a late night statement.
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Source: ET
