The Adani Group on August 11 denied the reports by US-based short-seller Hindenburg Research which accused SEBI Chief Madhabi Puri Buch and her husband Dhaval Buch of having held stakes in obscure offshore funds that were allegedly used to siphon funds into Adani Group entities.
“The Adani Group has absolutely no commercial relationship with the individuals or matters mentioned in this calculated deliberate effort to malign our standing,” it said in response to the recent Hindenburg report.
The statement added that the Adani Group remains steadfastly committed to transparency and compliance with all legal and regulatory requirements.
The Adani Group also rejected the allegations made by Hindenburg against the company and reiterated that their overseas holding structure is fully transparent, with all relevant details disclosed regularly in numerous public documents.
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“For a discredited short-seller under the scanner for several violations of Indian securities laws, Hindenburg's allegations are no more than red herrings thrown by a desperate entity with total contempt for Indian laws,” it added.
Earlier, on Sunday, SEBI chief Madhabi Puri Buch and her husband Dhaval Buch strongly denied Hindenburg’s allegations calling them ‘baseless’. The husband-wife duo stated in a joint statement that the US-based short-seller is attempting character assassination in response to a show-cause notice issued by the regulator in the Adani controversy.
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“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,” the couple said in a statement issued at 1:40 AM on August 11.
On Saturday, a report by Hindenburg alleged that Madhabi Buch and her husband held stakes in obscure entities based out of Bermuda and Mauritius used to illegally siphon funds to Adani entities. It also criticised SEBI, saying it had “shown a surprising lack of interest in Adani's alleged undisclosed web of Mauritius and offshore shell entities."
Hindenburg alleged that Madhabi Puri and her husband opened an account with IPE Plus Fund 1 on June 5, 2015, in Singapore. This IPE fund is a minor offshore Mauritius Fund established by Gautam Adani’s elder brother Vinod Adani through India Infoline (IIFL), a wealth management company connected to the Wirecard embezzlement scandal.
The short-seller claimed that Vinod used this structure to invest in Indian markets with funds illegally siphoned from over-invoicing of power equipment to Adani Group.
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