'Hindenburg claims baseless & an attempt of character assassination'

US short-seller Hindenburg Research has alleged that it suspects SEBI’s unwillingness to act against Adani Group may be because of its head Madhabi Puri Buch had stakes in offshore funds linked to the conglomerate - an allegation that the SEBI head called “baseless” and an attempt of “character assassination”.

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Hindenburg alleged that Buch and her husband had undisclosed investments in obscure offshore funds in Bermuda and Mauritius, the same entities allegedly used by Vinod Adani - the elder brother of group chairman Gautam Adani - to round-trip funds and inflate stock prices.

SEBI in October 2020 began a probe into the shareholding structure of Adani Group companies after red flags were raised over high concentration of foreign holdings in the conglomerate’s listed companies.

Investigation was launched to determine if the foreign investors are genuine public shareholders or acting as fronts for the promoters.

SEBI last year had told a Supreme Court-appointed panel that it was investigating 13 opaque offshore entities that held between 14 per cent and 20 per cent across five publicly traded stocks of the conglomerate.

It hasn’t stated if the two incomplete probes have since been completed, something which Hindenburg used to attack the market regulator.