Zee chairman: “India’s regulator is corrupt”
September 4, 2024
By Chris Forrester
Subhash Chandra, chairman emeritus of Zee Entertainment, alleges the recent merger plan between Zee and Sony was deliberately scuppered by the Securities & Exchange Board of India’s (SEBI) chairwoman Madhabi Puri Buch.
In hard hitting comments, Chandra said he was taking legal advice against Puri Buch as he is convinced that the “SEBI Chairperson is corrupt”.
Chandra alleged the Zee–Sony merger was impacted negatively by SEBI, noting: “This was the main reason for the merger to set apart, and that is why I am questioning today that SEBI is supposed to protect the interest of minority shareholders, and she succeeded in pushing away Sony from getting merged with Zee.”
He further alleged that Puri Buch was “biased” against him. Chandra also urged Zee (where his son Punit Goenka is CEO) not to cooperate with SEBI “since it is a biased investigation being carried out; with a pre–conceived mindset of SEBI Chairperson.”
Chandra specifically alleged that the chairwoman was “taking [benefits] illegally from ICICI Bank.”
The bank played a key part in the negotiations between Zee and Sony. ICICI Bank has robustly denied giving payments, salary or stock options to SEBI’s chairwoman who has now retired from her position, other than those to which she was entitled when employed by the bank. Nevertheless, India’s business pages are full of alleged reports – denied by the bank – that SEBI chairwoman received any sort of illegal benefit which the reports suggest totalled more than $2 million.
“During her employment with the ICICI Group, she received compensation in the form of salary, retiral benefits, bonus and ESOPs, in line with applicable policies,” the bank said in a statement on September 3rd.
Addressing a press conference in Delhi, the Congress political party leader Pawan Khera alleged that between 2017 and 2024, Puri Buch received $1.5 million from ICICI Bank, other payments from ICICI Prudential, $340,000 from Employee Stock Ownership Plans (ESOPs), and $131.500 in Tax Deducted at Source (TDS) payments from ICICI, in addition to her salary from SEBI, which totalled $394,000.
Khera questioned how the top authority of a regulatory body could ethically take income from an entity it regulates, and said, “Anyone with a little shame would not wait to give a resignation after this exposure.”