Hindenburg again.

Yesterday, short-seller Hindenburg Research alleged that "Sebi Chairperson Madhabi Puri Buch had stakes in offshore funds linked" to the Adani conglomerate. The Sebi Chairperson and her husband "had stakes in the exact same obscure offshore Bermuda and Mauritius funds, found in the same complex nested structure used by Vinod Adani," Hindenburg said. Apparently, that is why Sebi has found no wrongdoing in Adani's affairs. The Sebi Chief owns "99% stake in a consulting business called Agora Advisory, where her husband is a director," and while Mr Buch was senior advisor in Blackstone "the regulator gave nod to IPOs of two REITS backed by the PE firm - Mindspace and Nexus Select Trust." ET. The Securities and Exchange Board (SEBI) is the regulator for India's securities and commodity markets, under the Ministry of Finance. wikipedia. In response, both Ms Madhabi Puri Buch and her husband Dhaval Buch accused Hindenburg of character assassination and claimed, "Our life and finances are an open book." HT. On 24 January 2024, Hindenburg reported that "the INR 17.8 trillion (US $218 billion) Indian conglomerate Adani Group has engaged in a brazen stock manipulation and accounting fraud scheme over the course of decades." Sebi's own research found Adani to be wholly pure but found that "The activist short seller (Hindenburg) failed to abide by several rules governing research analysts, according to Sebi show-cause notice. Worse still, it shared an advance copy of its adverse report on the Adani Group with the hedge fund manager Mark Kingdon before publication." Bloomberg. Shoot the messenger (wikipedia) and all is well. Stock prices of the Adani Group soared by 16% or Rs 1.4 trillion on 3 June 2024 on rumors of a landslide victory for Mr Modi in the general election. The market capitalization of the Group jumped to Rs 19.24 trillion. ET. Got it. "Indian companies with global operations need to have crisis management plans in place given the rise in the number of short sellers, said William J Stellmach, former head of the US Department of Justice's Fraud Section." ET. In other words, the safer you are inside India, the more fun these fellows will have. While Sebi may have found Mr Adani to be an innocent victim, the dreaded Enforcement Directorate (ED) registered 5,297 cases under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) and only 43 trials have been completed of which 40 were convicted and 3 were found innocent. This apparently gives a 93% success rate in conviction. The ED filed 8,719 cases under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA), of which 789 trials have been completed with 222 convictions and 567 found innocent. That is a success rate of 28.13%. Very few cases may be proved in court but the success rate in harassment is 100%. In 2023, 216,219 Indians renounced their citizenship, slightly less than 225,620 in 2022. ET. Some are protected and some have escaped. The rest of us cower in uncertainty. At their mercy.