MUMBAI, Sept 13 (Askume) – India’s market regulator has complied with all disclosure guidelines issued by the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI), the head of the market regulator said on Friday. He rejected allegations of conflict of interest from the country’s main opposition party and U.S. short sellers.
“Madhabi complies with all SEBI disclosure and exclusion guidelines and, in fact, maintains an active continuous exclusion list with SEBI that exceeds the requirements of the guidelines,” Madhabi Puri Buch said in a private statement.
Buch has been facing criticism from US short-seller Hindenburg Research and India’s opposition parties over alleged conflict of interest in investigations related to the Adani Group and other corporate entities.
The controversy marks a rare instance of the head of India’s top regulator being forced to resign over alleged misconduct.
In an August report , forensic finance research firm Hindenburg claimed that Buch had previously invested in a fund owned by Vinod Adani, brother of billionaire Gautam Adani (Vinod Adani), which was part of the network of funds used.
SEBI is currently investigating alleged irregularities at the Adani Group, and Hindenburg said it was unable to conduct those investigations impartially because of Buch’s past investments.
Butch denied this in a previous statement.
India’s opposition Congress party made a number of allegations following the release of the Hindenburg Report, demanding an investigation and the resignation of Buch from the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI), which regulates listed companies and domestic and foreign investors.
“These allegations are false, inaccurate, malicious and motivated,” Buch and her husband, Davor Buch, said in a statement.
Notably, Buch said he has not dealt with any regulatory matters related to his former employer, ICICI Bank.
Consultancy Fee
The Congress party alleged that Buch had a conflict of interest in dealings with ICICI, where he worked until 2011. The bank denied this in a statement .
The Congress said Bucci continued to earn income from ICICI Bank through employee stock options (ESOPs) even while he was being investigated by regulators for market irregularities.
“SEBI guidelines permit board members, including the chairman, to hold and trade in ESOPs,” Buch’s statement said.
Buch’s statement also refuted allegations made by the Congress that there was a conflict of interest with the Mahindra Group and Dr Reddy’s due to the consultancy fees paid to Davar Buch by these groups .
The statement said that Madhabi Buch has distanced herself from the matters related to these companies.
The consulting fees are earned through two entities, Agora Partners and Agora Advisory, in which Madhabi Buch holds 99% of the shares. The advisors continued to generate revenue even after Butcher joined the regulator in 2017 and became its second-largest adviser, Askume reported .
The statement said this was done to “transparently separate” Davor Bucci’s income from the company from his personal income and expenses. Butcher said all the charges against him are based on his income tax returns, which were obtained “fraudulently and illegally.”
The government is still silent on the allegations of the opposition.
There was no immediate response to an email sent to the federal Treasury Department about its investigation into Buch’s plans.
A Congress party spokesperson told Askume it would soon respond to the claims in Buch’s statement.
