Madhabi Puri Buch, former chairperson of the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi), has rejected criticism that the market regulator was slow to act in the high-profile index manipulation case involving US trading firm Jane Street.
In a detailed note, Buch described the claims of regulatory inaction as a “false narrative”, saying Sebi’s intervention began well before the matter became public.
“In actuality, identification of index manipulation by Jane Street and initiation of numerous actions, including a cease-and-desist instruction to Jane Street, were carried out by Sebi between April 2024 and February 2025,” Buch stated.
Chronology
She pointed to the interim order issued by Sebi on 3 July 2025, which, according to her, clearly documented the sequence of events leading up to the issuance of the order. “The chronology clearly shows that Sebi commenced an examination of the matter as early as April 2024 itself”, Buch said.
She listed the steps the regulator undertook: identification of the alleged index manipulation, issuance of circulars and issuance of a caution letter to Jane Street to cease and desist from undertaking certain trading patterns between April 2024 and February 2025.
She elaborated that in that period, Sebi constituted a multi- disciplinary team of officials to examine the matter comprehensively which led to the detailed findings which form the basis of the order.
“It is extremely unfortunate that certain sections of the media are choosing to ignore these facts in plain sight and seeking to create a false narrative by implying that there was regulatory failure by Sebi in the matter during that period and attributing false motives for the same. The order passed by Sebi speaks for itself,” Buch said.
She further clarified that Sebi took “numerous steps to examine and investigate the extremely complex structures and strategies deployed by them and to verify and analyse the data.”
In parallel, the regulator also made policy-level interventions in October 2024 and instructed the National Stock Exchange (NSE) to issue a cease-and-desist letter to Jane Street in February 2025.
“All of this is clearly articulated in the order of Sebi,” Buch said
Jane Street said it plans to contest Sebi’s finding, the Financial Times reported on Monday, according to Reuters. Jane Street’s senior management said it was “beyond disappointed” by the regulator’s “extremely inflammatory” accusations and were “working on a formal response” to rebut them, the newspaper reported, citing a memo sent by the company to its roughly 3,000 employees on Sunday.
