Securities and Exchange Board (SEBI) Chairperson Madhabi Puri Buch did not respond on the latest allegations by the Congress party after her session at the Confederation of Indian Industry-organised Financing 3.0 Summit in Mumbai earlier on September 2.
Among other allegations, the Congress party has claimed that between 2017 and 2021, when Buch was a whole-time member at SEBI, she received a salary of Rs 12.63 crore from ICICI Bank. Additionally, Congress spokesperson Pawan Khera claimed that Buch also received an income of Rs 22.41 crore from ICICI Prudential during the same period. Between 2021 and 2023, Buch also allegedly received employee stock option plan (ESOP) benefits of ₹2.84 crore from ICICI Bank.
Speaking at the CII event on the government's financial inclusion agenda, Buch said she could talk about investing in real estate investment trusts (REIT) but she would get accused of conflict of interest. "So, it would be better for me to abstain," she said.
Buch was hinting at the allegation by US short-seller Hindenburg Research that after her husband Dhaval Buch was appointed in 2019 as a senior advisor in global investment firm Blackstone, which had large investments in real estate investment trusts in India, she had promoted the instrument to investors as her favourite asset class at industry conferences.