Finance Secretary Tuhin Kanta Pandey appointed SEBI chairperson

The Union government on Thursday appointed Finance Secretary Tuhin Kanta Pandey as the next chairperson of the Securities and Exchange Board of India.

The three-year tenure of Pandey will begin on Saturday.

Pandey, an Indian Administrative Service officer of the Odisha cadre, has served as the finance secretary since September and was appointed the revenue secretary on January 9. He was previously the secretary in the Department of Investment and Public Asset Management and the Department of Public Enterprises.

The tenure of Madhabi Puri Buch, the current chairperson of the market regulator, will end on Friday. She had taken over the position on March 2, 2022, becoming the first woman chief of the Securities and Exchange Board of India.

In August, American investment firm Hindenburg Research alleged that the SEBI chief and her husband Dhaval Buch had “hidden stakes” in offshore entities tied to stock price manipulation and money laundering by the Adani Group.

Madhabi and Dhaval Buch denied the allegations.

This came 18 months after Hindenburg Research accused the Adani Group of engaging in accounting fraud and money laundering using offshore tax havens. The market regulator, led by Madhabi Buch, had “drawn a blank” in its investigation of these allegations last year and told a Supreme Court-appointed panel that further inquiry could be a “journey without a…

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