Who is Dhaval Buch, Sebi chief Madhabi Buch's husband named in Hindenburg report

The Hindenburg Research on Saturday launched a fresh broadside against market regulator Sebi chairperson Madhabi Buch, alleging she and her husband Dhaval Buch had stakes in obscure offshore funds used in the Adani money siphoning scandal.

The Hindenburg Research on Saturday launched a fresh broadside against market regulator Sebi chairperson Madhabi Buch, alleging she and her husband Dhaval Buch had stakes in obscure offshore funds used in the Adani money siphoning scandal.

"In the context of allegations made in the Hindenburg Report dated August 10,2024 against us, we would like to state that we strongly deny the baseless allegations and insinuations made in the report. The same are devoid of any truth. Our life and finances are an open book. All disclosures as required have already been furnished to SEBI over the years. We have no hesitation in disclosing any and all financial documents, including those that relate to the period when we were strictly private citizens, to any and every authority that may seek them. Further, in the interest of complete transparency, we would be issuing a detailed statement in due course. 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," reads a press statement by SEBI chairperson Madhabi Puri Buch and her husband Dhaval Buch.

Dhaval Buch's brief profile
Dhaval Buch is currently a senior advisor at Blackstone and at Alvarez & Marsal, according to his LinkedIn profile.

He also serves as a non-executive director on the Board of Gildan. Till recently he was the Chief Executive Officer of Bristlecone and Interim President, Group Technology for the Mahindra group

His LinkedIn profile also states that before this, Dhaval Buch had a three-decade-long career with Unilever. His last role in Unilever was as the Chief Procurement Officer for the company and prior to that, he ran the Unilever Supply Chain for the Asia/Africa region - both these roles were based out of Singapore.

In a blogpost, Hindenburg said 18 months since its damning report on Adani, "SEBI has shown a surprising lack of interest in Adani's alleged undisclosed web of Mauritius and offshore shell entities." Citing "whistleblower documents", it said, "Madhabi Buch, the current chairperson Of SEBI, and her husband had stakes in both obscure offshore funds used in the Adani money siphoning scandal." Obscure offshore Bermuda and Mauritius funds, allegedly controlled by Vinod Adani -- elder brother of group chairman Gautam Adani -- are alleged to have been used to round-trip funds and inflate stock price.

"In brief, despite the existence of thousands of mainstream, reputable onshore Indian mutual fund products, an industry she now is responsible for regulating, documents show SEBI Chairperson Madhabi Buch and her husband had stakes in a multi-layered offshore fund structure with miniscule assets, traversing known high-risk jurisdictions, overseen by a company with reported ties to the Wirecard scandal, in the same entity run by an Adani director and significantly used by Vinod Adani in the alleged Adani cash siphoning scandal," it alleged.

*With Agency Inputs