Mohandas Pai, Economist and Aarin Capital Chairman, slammed US short seller Hindenburg for publishing allegations against the SEBI chairman without any data. Mr Pai claimed Hindenburg’s sole aim was to make money and there is no substance in the allegations.
“No substance in the allegation. These guys are throwing mud at everybody for character assassination as they got a notice from SEBI because they have done insider trading in sort of a way,” Mr Pai told NDTV in an exclusive interview.
The new Hindenburg report claimed that SEBI Chairperson Madhabi Puri Buch and her husband Dhaval Buch had stakes in offshore entities involved in the alleged Adani money siphoning scandal.
The SEBI Chairman and the Adani Group, however, have labelled these allegations as “baseless” and “malicious”.
Mr Pai too claimed that there are several checks done by the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) while making appointments and there was no conflict of interest.
“Some people are sensationalising saying there is a conflict of interest. How is there conflict of interest when there is no investment,” the former Infosys chief finance officer said.
“The investment was in a local fund in Singapore when they were residents there. The fund had no investments in Adani companies. Redeemed fully later. Perfectly legitimate legal vehicle in Singapore. The fund manager was regulated. No investment when she joined SEBI. So what is the issue,” he added.
Claiming that Hindenburg has no credibility, he urged investors and young people to not get carried away by fake narratives.
Madhabi and Dhaval Buch have accused Hindenburg Research of attempting a character assassination of the SEBI chairperson.
“Hindenburg has been served a show cause notice for a variety of violations in India. It is unfortunate that instead of replying to the show cause notice, they have chosen to attack the credibility of SEBI and attempt character assassination of the SEBI Chairperson,” the couple said in a statement.
The Adani Group has also said Hindenburg Research has made “recycled claims”.
“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,” the group said in an exchange filing.
