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The statement harshly criticized Hindenburg for attacking its credibility rather than responding to the show-cause notices issued by SEBI.
NEW DELHI: In response to the fresh set of allegations made by Hindenburg Research on August 10, 2024, SEBI Chairperson Madhabi Puri Buch and her husband, Dhaval Buch, have issued a detailed statement defending their personal and professional integrity.
The statement asserted that Madhabi, an IIM Ahmedabad alumna, has over 20 years of experience in banking and financial services, predominantly with the ICICI Group, while Dhaval, an IIT Delhi graduate, has spent 35 years with Hindustan Unilever and Unilever globally.
The Buchs emphasized that their wealth and investments are derived from their long careers and denied any malicious insinuation regarding their net worth and Madhabi’s government salary.
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The statement read, “The investment in the fund referred to in the Hindenburg report was made in 2015 when they were both private citizens living in Singapore and almost 2 years before Madhabi joined SEBI, even as a Whote Time Member.”
“The decision to invest in this fund was because the Chief Investment Officer, Mr Anil Ahuja, is Dhaval’s childhood friend from school and IIT Delhi and, being an ex-employee of Citibank, J.P. Morgen and 3i Group plc, had many decades of a strong investing career. The fact that these were the drivers of the investment decision is borne out by the fact that when, in 2018, Mr. Ahuje, left his position as CIO of the fund, we redeemed the investment in that fund.”, the letter clarified.
Adding on, the statement read that Dhaval’s role as Senior Advisor at Blackstone Private Equity, starting in 2019, was based on his expertise in supply chain management and was announced publicly. To avoid conflicts of interest, Blackstone was added to Madhabi’s recusal list upon her SEBI appointment.
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The Buchs also addressed the alleged favouritism in SEBI regulations, asserting that all regulations are approved by the SEBI Board after extensive public consultation, and deny that changes in REIT regulations benefited any specific party.
They stressed that both of Madhabi’s consulting companies became dormant upon her SEBI appointment and that all disclosures, including changes in shareholding and business interests, were made to SEBI and relevant authorities.
The pronouncement harshly criticized Hindenburg saying, ” Hindenburg has been served a show cause notice for a variety of violations in India. It is unfortunate that instead of replying to the Show Cause Notice, they have chosen to attack the credibility of the SEBI and attempt character assassination of the SEBI Chairperson.”
