What did OCCRP really find against the Adani group?

After Hindenburg Research’s report on Adani Group of companies in January that shook the Indian stock market, a new report published by George Soros-backed Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP) has created yet another panic situation for investors.

But what did OCCRP really find in its report published on August 30? 

OCCRP’s key findings:

• Neither India’s stock market regulator nor a high-level expert committee has been able to prove what many suspect: that some foreign owners of publicly listed Adani Group stock are, in fact, fronts for its majority owners.
• Fresh allegations aired this January by American short sellers rocked the conglomerate, but offshore secrecy has made tracing the transactions difficult. Official investigators “hit a wall,” in the words of one repor.
• Now, new documents obtained by reporters reveal two men who spent years trading hundreds of millions of dollars’ worth of Adani Group stock: Nasser Ali Shaban Ahli and Chang Chung-Ling.
• Both have close ties to the Adani family, including appearing as directors and shareholders in affiliated companies.
• Records show that the investment funds they used to trade in Adani Group stock received instructions from a company controlled by a senior member of the Adani family.

Adani Group’s rebuttal

The Adani Group, in its statement denying these allegations, said "These claims are based on closed cases from a decade ago when the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) probed allegations of over invoicing, transfer of funds abroad, related party transactions and investments through FPIs." The conglomerate further said that probes by an independent authority and appellate tribunal had also confirmed that there was no over-valuation, adding that in March 2023, the Supreme Court of India also ruled in the favour of Adani Group. It also asserted that these FPIs were already a part of the investigation by SEBI and an Expert Committee appointed by the Supreme Court found no evidence of breach of Minimum Public Shareholding (MPS) requirements or stock price manipulation.