Contradicting the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) chief Madhabi Puri Buch's claims that Agora Pvt Ltd, an advisory service provider owned by her, was lying dormant after she took office, Congress on September 10 in fresh allegations said that market regulator's top boss and her husband Dhaval Buch continued to earn from the advisory firm.
"The Hindenburg report revealed the name of a company, Agora advisory private limited, which was registered on May 7, 2013. This company belongs to Madhabi Puri Buch ji and her husband, but Madhabi ji had denied this after the Hindenburg report came out. In that denial he wrote that since the time it went to SEBI, this company has been dormant. But Madhavi ji still has 99% stake in this company."
Congress spokesperson Pawan Khera attacked the Sebi chief and asked few questions.
"Our questions were: Which companies took services from Agora? Are the companies that took Agora's services under SEBI's scanner?
The answer we got is that Madhabi ji earned Rs 2 crore 95 lakh through Agora during her tenure at SEBI. Some of the names of the companies from which this money was earned are: Mahindra & Mahindra Limited, Dr. Reddy's, Pidilite, ICICI, Sembcorp, Visu Leasing And Finance Private Limited," Khera alleged.
Further, the Congress leader said, "When you work somewhere, there are some rules, but Madhabi ji ignored all the rules. Madhabi ji earned 2 crore 95 lakh rupees through Agora; most of the money in this, 88%, came from Mahindra & Mahindra. At the same time, Madhabi Puri's husband Dhawal Buch received Rs 4 crore 78 lakh from Mahindra & Mahindra company between 2019-21. That too when Madhabi Puri Buch was a whole time member of SEBI, which is a violation of the rules. During this period, SEBI had also issued several orders in favor of Mahindra & Mahindra."
The Mahindra group refuted the allegations, calling the suggestion of conflict of interest on payments to Dhaval Buch, husband of Madhabi Buch, as false and misleading.
On September 9, Sebi chief found support from her Indian Institute of Ahmedabad batchmates, who have dismissed the allegations against her as baseless.
They said the allegations have implications not just for her personally but for the credibility of an “important democratic institution”.
Buch passed out of the top management B-school of the country in 1988.
The batchmates, in a statement, said the narrative around the Sebi chief did not "ring true" to them as they know her for over 35 years and hence they did some due diligence to "fact check" all the questions raised.
Recently, the Congress in a fresh set of allegations accused Buch of "out and out corruption." Party spokesperson Pawan Khera alleged that Buch rented out her properties to Carol Info Services, which is part of Wockhardt, against whom the market regulator is investigating several cases including that of insider trading.
Wockhardt refuted the allegations. "In this regard, we categorically deny these allegations and state that these allegations are completely baseless and misleading," the firm said in a regulatory filing.
Earlier, the Congress questioned the payments Buch received from her former employer, ICICI Bank even after she quit the private lender and joined Sebi.
The payments violated office of profit rules, the party said, calling for an independent investigation. ICICI Bank had denied wrongdoing in the payments made to Buch.
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