Hindenburg Report: It is in this background that on Sunday, the Adani Group flatly dismissed recent allegations levelled by the American short seller Hindenburg Research, which had claimed the group’s financial links with SEBI chairperson Madhabi Buch and her husband, Dhaval Buch. The Adani Group labelled such allegations as “malicious, mischievous, and manipulative,” referring to the same as mala fide schemes for profiteering not based on cold-blooded facts.
Adani Group Denounces Hindenburg Allegations
It accused Hindenburg of collating public information selectively to arrive at predetermined conclusions that were meant for personal profiteering. The Adani Group said these claims have merely been a refurbished version of those already discredited. “We completely reject these allegations against the Adani Group which are a recycling of discredited claims that have been thoroughly investigated, proven to be baseless, and already dismissed by the Hon’ble Supreme Court in January 2024,” it said in the statement.
The Adani Group has come out to clarify the structure holding its overseas companies, saying that it was transparent and the required information had consistently been disclosed in public documents. Further, the group denied any commercial relationship with Buch or her husband. Hindenburg Research, it said, had made a “deliberate attempt” to discredit the Adani Group, referring to the firm as a “discredited short-seller.”
Joint Statement by Madhabi Buch and Dhaval Buch
“For a discredited short-seller coming 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,” said the statement from Adani Group. Joint Statement by Madhabi Buch and her husband goes on to refute the accusations. They termed the allegations a case of character assassination by Hindenburg Research in retaliation for an enforcement action taken against the firm by market regulator SEBI. “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,” the statement said.
The Buchs also promised to come out with a detailed statement in due course, where the Hindenburg claims would be found as totally unfounded. “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,” they added.
Hindenburg’s Allegations on Hidden Stakes
Hindenburg Research claimed that the Buchs were hiding interests in murky offshore funds that the Adani Group was managing. “What we hadn’t realized: the current Chairperson of SEBI and her husband, Dhaval Buch, had hidden stakes in the exact same obscure offshore Bermuda and Mauritius funds, found in the same complex nested structure, used by Vinod Adani,” the report said.
The controversy has increased scrutiny over the Adani Group and Hindenburg Research, underlining the ongoing tensions between the conglomerate and the short-seller amid the broader regulatory and legal challenges.