US-based short-seller Hindenburg Research has made serious allegations against Madhabi Puri Buch, chairperson of the Securities Exchange Board of India (SEBI), and her husband, Dhaval Buch. The firm claims that the Buchs were involved in an offshore fund that received substantial investments from Vinod Adani, the brother of Gautam Adani. This report raises questions about SEBI’s impartiality and potential conflicts of interest.
According to Hindenburg’s report, on March 22, 2017, Dhaval Buch, ahead of Madhabi Puri Buch’s appointment as SEBI chairperson, contacted Trident Trust, a fund administrator in Mauritius. Buch requested to be the sole person authorized to operate the accounts related to their investment in the Global Dynamic Opportunities Fund (GDOF). The timing and nature of this request suggest an effort to distance these assets from his wife’s name prior to her high-profile appointment.
Who is Dhaval Buch?
Dhaval Buch is a senior advisor at Blackstone and Alvarez & Marsal and serves as a non-executive director on the Board of Gildan, as per his LinkedIn profile. An alumnus of Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi (IIT-D), Buch graduated in mechanical engineering in 1984. He previously served as executive director and Chief Procurement Officer at Unilever, and has extensive experience in procurement and supply chain management.
The whistleblower documents referenced by Hindenburg indicate that Dhaval Buch’s net worth is $10 million and that he was employed at Unilever during the alleged investment period in Vinod Adani’s firms. The report also alleges that while Buch was a senior advisor at Blackstone, the firm played a role in sponsoring Mindspace and Nexus Select Trust, which were among the REITs to receive SEBI approval for public IPOs.