Hindenburg Research launched scathing attack on the SEBI chief Madhabi Buch on Saturday night alleging her and husband to have a stake in the obscure offshore entities used in the Adani money siphoning scandal.
“We had previously noted Adani’s total confidence in continuing to operate without the risk of serious regulatory intervention, suggesting that this may be explained through Adani’s relationship with SEBI Chairperson, Madhabi Buch,” the report read.
“What we hadn’t realized: the current SEBI Chairperson 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,” it added.
“Madhabi Buch and her husband Dhaval Buch first appear to have opened their account with IPE Plus Fund 1 on June 5th, 2015 in Singapore, per whistleblower documents. A declaration of funds, signed by a principal at IIFL states that the source of the investment is ‘salary’ and the couple´s net worth is estimated at $10 million,” it further stated.
The Bermuda and Mauritius funds
The Hindenburg Report said that Vinod Adani, brother of Gautam Adani, controlled company had invested in “Global Dynamic Opportunities Fund” (“GDOF”) in Bermuda, a British overseas territory and tax haven, which then invested in IPE Plus Fund 1, a fund registered in Mauritius, another tax haven.
If cited a separate investigation by the Financial Times saying it showed that the parent fund of GDOF – the Bermuda-based Global Opportunities Fund (“GOF”) – was used by two Adani associates “to amass and trade large positions in shares of the Adani Group”.
These nested funds are managed by Indian Infoline (IIFL), now called 360 One per private fund data and IIFL’s marketing material, it said.
Two layers below the Global Opportunities Fund, is the IPE Plus fund, a small and obscure offshore fund registered in Mauritius.
The IPE Plus Fund had only U.S. $38.43 million in assets under management (AUM) at the end of December 2017, per IIFL disclosures.
The Hindenburg Report said the AdaniWatch reported that “by March 2017, ATIL, a Vinod Adani company, had a total balance of $40.38 million with GDOF”.
Thus, while we are unable to see the total assets of parent fund GDOF, it appears a significant portion of the assets of the funds may be comprised of Adani money, it alleged.
