Congress labels office for profit charge against SEBI Chairperson Madhabi Puri Buch

New Delhi: The Congress party has labeled fresh allegations against SEBI Chairperson Madhabi Puri Buch. The Congress party accused her of office for profit.
In a press conference in New Delhi on Monday, Pawan Khera, Chairman, Media and Publicity Department, Congress, charged Buch of receiving regular income from private lender ICICI Bank and its asset management arm ICICI Prudential, while being the whole-time member and later Chairperson of the capital markets regulatory body.
"She (SEBI Chairperson Madhabi Puri Buch) between 2017 and 2024 was taking regular income of Rs 16 crore 80 lakhs from ICICI Bank," alleged Pawan Khera, at the press briefing.
The congress spokesperson also alleged that Buch received a total of Rs 16.80 crore between 2017-18 to 2023-24, from ICICI Bank, ICICI Prudential, ESOPs, and TDS on ESOPs.
According to the Congress' allegations: in 2017-18 the SEBI chief allegedly received Rs 2.06 crore from ICICI Bank as salary and Rs 7 lakh from ICICI Prudential.
In 2018-19, she received Rs 4.71 crore from ICICI Bank, Rs 2.17 lakh from ICICI Prudential. In 2019-20, Rs 1.21 crore from ICICI Bank and Rs 2.17 lakh from ICICI Prudential.
In 2020-21, she was alleged of having received Rs 4.64 crore from ICICI Bank and Rs 2.17 lakh ICICI Prudential. In 2021-22, Congress asserted that the salary stopped from ICICI Bank but she continued to receive Rs 2.17 lakh from ICICI Prudential, also same year she received ESOP and TDS on ESOP from ICICI Bank.
In 2022-23, she was alleged to have received Rs 4.44 lakh from ICICI Prudential, in addition to ESOP and TDS on ESOP, In 2023-24, she was alleged to have received Rs 2.17 from ICICI Prudential.
The Congress further alleges that during this period, Buch also drew a salary from SEBI as a whole-time member and later as the Chairperson.
Khera further added that several probes on ICICI Bank were being adjudicated during this period when Madhabi Puri Buch was receiving income from the group. He also cited unnamed reports to claim that the SEBI chief has relaxed norms for the ICICI Bank.
"The person sitting at the top of the regulator is taking salaries from another entity," Khera alleged, adding it was a perfect case of "office for profit".
"So we want to know why you were taking your salary from ICICI despite being a full-time member of SEBI?," Khera asked what service she as the SEBI Chairperson provided the bank when she was part of SEBI.
"This is a direct violation of Section 54 of SEBI. Therefore, if Madhabi Puri Buch has any shame, she should resign from her post," Khera added.
The SEBI Chief is yet to react to the charges made by the Congress in Monday's news conference.
Madhabi Puri Buch was a whole-time member of SEBI from April 5, 2017 to October 4, 2021. Then on March 2, 2022, Madhabi Puri Buch became the Chairperson of SEBI.
Recently, US-based short seller Hindenburg Research made allegations against her accusing her of conflict of interest. Last month, Hindenburg Research alleged that SEBI Chairperson Madhabi Puri Buch and her husband Dhaval Buch had stakes in "both the obscure offshore entities used in the Adani money siphoning scandal." Hindenburg Research said it has made the new allegations based on documents provided by a whistleblower and investigations carried out by other entities.
Soon after, the SEBI Chairperson and her husband, in their personal capacity, issued a detailed statement rejecting the allegations.
In the joint statement released to the media they said, "In the context of allegations made in the Hindenburg Report dated August 10, 2024, against us, we would like to state that we strongly deny the baseless allegations and insinuations made in the report. The same are devoid of any truth. Our life and finances are an open book. All disclosures as required have already been furnished to SEBI over the years. We have no hesitation in disclosing any and all financial documents, including those that relate to the period when we were strictly private citizens, to any and every authority that may seek them. Further, in the interest of complete transparency, we would be issuing a detailed statement in due course."
"It is unfortunate that Hindenburg Research against whom SEBI has taken an Enforcement action and issued a show cause notice has chosen to attempt character assassination in response to the same," the statement from Madhabi Buch and her husband Dhaval Buch read.