New Delhi: The Congress today (September 14) alleged that SEBI (Securities and Exchange Board of India) chairperson Madhabi Puri Buch traded in listed securities worth Rs 36.9 crores between 2017 to 2023, while she was a whole time member and later chairperson of SEBI, in violation of the regulator’s code on conflict of interest, and held foreign assets including investments in Chinese funds.
Addressing a press conference in New Delhi, Congress spokesperson Pawan Khera said that not only has Prime Minister Narendra Modi given a clean chit to China but the SEBI chairperson also invests in Chinese funds.
“Between the years 2017-21 Madhabi Puri Buch had some foreign assets. We want to know when was the first time she declared these foreign assets to which government agency? Is it true that Madhabi Puri Buch associated with Agora Partners PTE in Singapore as she was a signatory to the bank account? The funds that she has invested include-Vanguard Total Stock Market ETF, ARK Innovation ETF, Global X MSCI China Consumer, Invesco China Technology ETF,” he said.
“We are very concerned in India about using Chinese products. Why is PMCARES getting funding from China? And the prime minister keeps lecturing us. But this is really concerning that the SEBI chairperson is investing in China. The prime minister gives a clean chit to China but we now know that the SEBI chairperson is investing in Chinese funds as well.”
The Congress has posed three questions to Modi and demanded to know whether the prime minister is aware that “the SEBI Chairperson has been trading in listed securities while in possession of Unpublished Price Sensitive Information? Is the PM aware that Madhabi P. Buch has made high value investments outside India? If yes, what is the date of this investment and date of disclosure? Is the PM aware that the SEBI chairperson has been investing in Chinese firms at a time when India is facing geopolitical tensions with China?”
The allegation comes just a day after Buch and her husband Dhaval Buch on Friday denied a series of allegations of conflict of interest levelled by the Congress, terming them “incorrect, motivated and defamatory”.
In recent weeks the Congress has made a series of allegations against Buch and her husband, after US short-seller Hindenburg Research – whose report on the Adani group last year alleged price rigging of company shares – accused the SEBI chief and her spouse of having held “stakes in both the obscure offshore funds used in the Adani money siphoning scandal,” citing “whistleblower documents” on August 10.
In its August 10 report, Hindenburg also said Buch was a 100% shareholder in a Singapore-based consultancy company called Agora Partners until as recently as March 16, 2022 – two weeks after she became SEBI chair – when she transferred her stake to her husband. Buch set up both Agora Advisory and Agora Partners before she joined SEBI as a whole-time member in 2017.
Earlier this week, the Congress alleged that she held 99% shares in a consultancy firm, Agora Advisory Private Limited that was “actively providing advisory/consultancy services till date”. In addition, the Congress has also alleged in recent weeks that Buch received income from ICICI Bank post-retirement, earning rental income from Wockhardt Associates.
