Winning Bizness Desk
Mumbai. The meeting of the Public Accounts Committee (PAC), scheduled to review the operations of the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI), was postponed on Thursday, October 24, after SEBI Chairperson Madhabi Puri Buch could not attend due to a personal emergency. This is the second time Buch was summoned by the committee to address issues regarding the market regulator's functioning. The meeting, chaired by senior Congress leader K.C. Venugopal, was intended to discuss matters surrounding SEBI's role and its recent activities. However, with Buch and other SEBI officials unable to attend, the PAC decided to defer the session. This meeting gained significance due to allegations involving Buch and her alleged links to offshore companies related to the Adani Group, as well as accusations of her receiving salaries from multiple organizations while serving as a SEBI member.
Two Key Allegations Against SEBI Chief
1. Offshore Company Links with Adani Group
One of the most serious allegations against Madhabi Puri Buch stems from a report released by Hindenburg Research in August 2024. The report claimed that Buch, along with her husband Dhaval Buch, held a stake in an offshore company based in Mauritius called the "Global Dynamic Opportunity Fund." The whistleblower report suggested that the fund received significant investments from Vinod Adani, the brother of Adani Group Chairman Gautam Adani, amounting to billions of dollars. These funds were allegedly used to inflate the value of Adani Group shares.
The Hindenburg report added fuel to the already heated discussions around corporate governance and transparency within the Adani Group. The accusation was that the fund played a critical role in manipulating stock prices to benefit the Adani Group’s market standing.
In response, Madhabi Puri Buch had strongly denied these claims. She dismissed the allegations as “baseless and defamatory,” asserting that she had no connection to the fund. In a joint statement with her husband, Buch said, “Our lives and finances are an open book, and we are willing to declare all financial records to refute these baseless allegations.”
2. Receiving Multiple Salaries During SEBI Tenure
Another controversy surrounding the SEBI Chairperson was raised by Congress spokesperson Pawan Khera, who, two months ago, accused Buch of receiving salaries from multiple organizations during her tenure at SEBI. Khera alleged that Buch continued to draw a regular income from ICICI Bank and two other organizations while she was a full-time member of SEBI between April 5, 2017, and October 4, 2021. He claimed that her total income from ICICI Bank alone amounted to INR 16.8 crore during that period.
Buch’s appointment as SEBI Chairperson in March 2022 raised further questions about her previous financial affiliations, prompting PAC to review these issues closely. The PAC had scheduled the current meeting in light of these concerns, and Buch’s absence from two consecutive summonses has increased speculation around the allegations. With the PAC meeting postponed, no new date has been announced, leaving these significant questions unresolved for now. The SEBI Chief’s personal emergency has delayed what could have been a crucial discussion regarding the regulator’s integrity and Buch's personal involvement in financial dealings during her time in office.
