SEBI chief Madhavi Puri Buch is again under the scanner. Madhavi Puri Buch continued to earn revenue from a consultancy firm during her seven-year tenure at SEBI. This was revealed in a Reuters report. Madhavi Puri Buch joined SEBI in 2017. And she was made the SEBI chief in March 2022.
Reuters has found in its investigation of the papers available with the Registrar of Companies that Agora Advisory Private Limited had earned $442,025 in the last seven years. This is a possible violation of SEBI rules. Buch had a 99 percent stake in the company. Reuters report said that according to the documents seen by them, no information was found to link these revenues to the Adani Group.
What do SEBI rules say?
According to SEBI’s 2008 rules, no official can hold a post from which he is making profit or getting salary or taking other professional fees. After Hindenburg’s report, Madhavi Puri Buch had said that information about the consultancy firm was given to SEBI. Her husband was handling this consultancy business after retiring from Unilever in 2019. Let us tell you, no statement has come from Madhavi Puri Buch or SEBI on Reuters’ report yet.
What is the matter?
American short seller company Hindenburg had talked about 2 consultancy firms in its latest report. According to the report, Singapore’s Agora Partners and India’s Agora Advisory were being run by Madhavi Puri Buch and her husband. Hindenburg had said in its report on the basis of Singapore company records that Madhavi Puri Buch had transferred her entire stake in Agora Partners to her husband in March 2022. But she had a stake in the Indian consultancy firm.
Subhash Garg, who was a member of Madhavi Puri’s team, said these things
Subhash Chandra Garg, the country’s top bureaucrat and member of SEBI at the time of Madhavi Purushottam Buch, has called this entire episode a serious violation of rules. His holding stake in the firm after joining the SEBI board cannot be justified in any way. It could not even be allowed to continue after his declaration.
A person who spoke on condition of anonymity told Reuters that full disclosure was required once a year. But the details of board members were neither presented to the board nor verified.
