Hindenburg 2.0: Mysterious funds from Mauritius made huge investments in Adani shares, claims Soros-backed OCCRP

The Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP) on Thursday claimed that Mauritius-based opaque funds invested millions of dollars in Adani shares. The fresh allegations by the group funded by organizations such as George Soros and the Rockefeller Brothers Fund come months after Hindenburg, an American short seller, agreed to work in the port-to-energy sector run by billionaire Gautam Adani. The group was charged with accounting fraud, stock price manipulation and improper use of tax havens. After this disclosure, the value of Adani Group's shares had declined by about $ 150 billion. However, Adani Group had denied all the allegations.

Citing a review of files from several tax haven countries and internal e-mails of the Adani Group, the OCCRP said its investigation found at least two cases where "mysterious" investors had contributed to such offshore structures (anonymous funds). ) through which Adani shares were bought and sold.

The OCCRO claimed that the Adani family has long-standing business links with mysterious investors Nasir Ali Shaban Ahli and Chang Chung-ling and these investors as directors and shareholders in companies and firms of Gautam Adani's elder brother Vinod Adani's group. Have also worked. It alleged that documents showed that the management company in charge of his investments paid Vinod Adani Company to advise him on his investments.

On the allegations of OCCRP, the Adani Group issued a statement saying, "We categorically reject these allegations. These news reports are being deliberately published by a section of foreign media funded by Soros. These meritless Hindenburg reports trying to revive it. In fact, such speculations were made earlier, such claims were made in the media last week as well. These claims are based on cases that were closed a decade back. At that time the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) DRI) had investigated allegations of over-invoicing, transfer of funds abroad, related party transactions and investment through FPIs." The Adani Group told the OCCRP that the Mauritian fund has already figured in the US short seller Hindenburg Report and these allegations are not only baseless and unproven, but are at variance with the Hindenburg allegations.

Adani Group told OCCRP, “It is categorically stated that all publicly listed entities of Adani Group are complying with all applicable laws including regulation relating to public shareholding.

PTI reported on August 24 that the Soros-funded organization, which calls itself an investigative reporting platform, was formed by 24 non-profit investigative centers. It is spread across Europe, Africa, Asia and Latin America. It is planning to publish fresh allegations against a top Indian corporate.

The OCCRP asked whether it is to be presumed that Ahli and Chang were acting on behalf of the promoters of the Adani group. "If so, their stake in Adani Group would mean that insiders illegally hold more than 75 percent stake," it said. It added that there is no evidence that Chang and Ahli had The money was coming from the Adani family, but said its investigation found evidence that investments in Adani shares were coordinated by the family.

"Adani Group's market capitalization has grown from $8 billion in September 2013 to $260 billion last year. The group is engaged in transportation and logistics, natural gas distribution, coal trading and production, power generation and transmission, road construction," the report said. , is involved in businesses across a variety of sectors, including data centers and real estate."