 "'False, malicious, and motivated': Buchs reject Congress charges")
Ending their silence on the allegations levelled by the Congress, Madhabi Puri Buch, chairperson of the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi), and her husband Dhaval Buch on Friday said that their income tax (I-T) details were obtained “illegally” and “twisted deliberately to create a false narrative”.
Without naming the Congress, the Buchs rebutted almost all the accusations levelled by the main opposition party in a series of press conferences. This is their second detailed response since short-seller Hindenburg first made allegations of conflict of interest in early August — but first since the Congress launched an attack on the first Sebi boss from the private sector.
In a six-page letter, Madhabi and Dhaval rubbished allegations of conflict of interest, corruption and lack of transparency, particularly with regard to the income generated from her ex-employer, the ICICI Group, and other corporates through their consultancy firm Agora Advisory.
Labelling the various claims as “false, malicious, and motivated”, the couple hinted that they may seek legal remedy.
“It appears that the allegations are being made in instalments, only to keep the pot boiling. If the objective had been to arrive at the truth rather than to malign individuals and institutions with distortions of facts, we wonder why all allegations would not be brought out, in public, at one go. We would then have given all the facts at one go,” the couple stated.
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On allegations of receiving employee stock options (ESOPs) from the ICICI Group, the Buchs clarified that Sebi guidelines permit board members and chairperson to hold and transact in ESOPs. Further, she had made disclosures to the market regulator since 2017 — when she first joined as a whole-time member — and subsequent transactions were also disclosed.
The Buchs added that Madhabi has never dealt with any files related to the ICICI Group, the Mahindra Group, Pidilite, Dr Reddy’s, Alvarez and Marsal, Sembcorp, and Visu Leasing at any stage after her joining Sebi.
“Depending on when Madhabi exercised her options and the prevailing market prices at the relevant time and the quantity of ESOPs exercised, the perquisite value is bound to vary each year. If no ESOPs were exercised in a given year, there would be zero value attached to it and this would be bound to be reflected in the returns as a gap year,” stated the couple on the issue of earning uneven income generated from the ICICI Group.
They further clarified that ESOPs are vested for three months only with employees who resign, while those like Madhabi who retired at senior positions have a 10-year window to exercise them.
The couple said that Madhabi was on “unpaid” leave for two years at ICICI Bank — at the time when she took up a role in a private equity (PE) firm in Singapore. She superannuated from ICICI Bank as per the norms and her arrangement with the PE firm was legal and transparent with disclosures made to both the entities.
In the joint statement, the couple refuted claims of getting incomes from corporates in return for favour, by stating that such questions were defamatory to the companies.
The companies earlier stated that they had taken services of Dhaval Buch for his experience in leadership roles and expertise in the supply-chain gained from his long stint at Unilever. “There seems to be an assumption that when a spouse of a senior government official is appointed as an advisor, it must be attributed to factors beyond professional merit,” they said.
The Congress had also raised questions on her “rental income” from a firm affiliated with Wockhardt, to which the couple said that while the details of the property were shared with Sebi, Madhabi never dealt with any files of the pharmaceutical firm.
“We are upright and honest professionals and have led our respective professional lives with transparency and dignity, earning an unblemished record... We are confident that we will be able to demolish all such motivated allegations even in future, while reserving our right to take appropriate legal remedy as we may be advised,” the Buchs said.
Additionally, the couple said that as these details were taken from their income tax returns, it shows that they have fully disclosed the matters and that taxes have been duly paid.
“Shockingly, our income tax returns clearly have been obtained illegally by adopting fraudulent means. This is a clear breach of not only our right to privacy (which is a fundamental right) but also a violation of the Income Tax Act," said the couple.