Hindenburg at it again
OVER a year and a half after it stirred up a hornet’s nest by accusing the Adani Group of pulling off ‘the largest con in corporate history’, US short-seller Hindenburg Research has trained its guns on the chairperson of SEBI (Securities and Exchange Board of India), Madhabi Buch, and her husband. Flagging conflict of interest, Hindenburg has alleged that the couple had stakes in obscure offshore funds used in the financial scandal. The insinuation is that the country’s market regulator, tasked with protecting the interests of investors in securities, took its foot off the probe pedal in view of a presumably commercial relationship between the Buchs and the Adanis.
The accusation — trashed by the couple as well as the conglomerate — is provocative as the Supreme Court had in January backed SEBI to the hilt, stating that the latter was conducting a ‘comprehensive investigation’ into alleged manipulation of stock prices and there was no need to transfer the case to a special investigation team. The faith reposed in SEBI by the apex court had raised eyebrows; after all, had the court trusted the board unquestioningly all along, why would it have set up a separate expert panel to look into regulatory lapses in the wake of Hindenburg’s January 2023 report?
At stake here is SEBI’s credibility, even as knives are again out in the political arena. The Congress has reiterated its demand for a joint parliamentary committee to investigate the scam in its entirety. Repeatedly accused of going the extra mile for leading corporates, the government needs to do much better than to just allege that the main Opposition party and Hindenburg are in cahoots. Transparency is a must to clear the air; the impression that SEBI is reluctant to complete its probe in all respects ought to be dispelled. Hindenburg might not be completely above board itself, but its claims cannot be conveniently brushed aside; they need to be countered with indisputable facts. The sooner the better, failing which the government’s pro-investor push will suffer a big jolt.
