Adani Group denies George Soros-backed OCCRP's allegations of stock manipulation

Amid a series of speculations around Adani Group’s dealings with some offshore entities including the latest Soros-backed OCCRP’s report on the company’s dealings, Adani Group has come out with a statement. The company said, “We categorically reject these recycled allegations. These news reports appear to be yet another concerted bid by Soros-funded interests supported by a section of the foreign media to revive the meritless Hindenburg report. In fact, this was anticipated, as was reported by the media last week.”

In yet another setback for Adani Group, on August 30, the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP) accused Adani Group of investing hundreds of millions of dollars in publicly traded group stocks through Mauritius-based 'opaque' investment funds managed by partners of promoter family. 

The conglomerate, however, remains firm on its stand and continues to deny these allegations.

The fresh allegations by the organisation funded by likes of George Soros and Rockefeller Brothers Fund come months after US short seller Hindenburg Research wiped away close to $150 billion (nearly Rs 12.4 lakh crore) in value of Adani Group stocks with allegations of accounting fraud, stock price manipulation and improper use of tax havens by the ports-to-energy conglomerate run by billionaire Gautam Adani. Adani Group denied all Hindenburg allegations in a 400-page rebuttal.

Adani Group asserted that all the 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. “An independent adjudicating authority and an appellate tribunal had both confirmed that there was no over-valuation and that the transactions were in accordance with applicable law. The matter attained finality in March 2023 when the Hon'ble Supreme Court of India ruled in our favour. Clearly, since there was no over-valuation, there is no relevance or foundation for these allegations on transfer of funds,” Adani Group said in a statement.

Furthermore, Adani reiterated that the Expert Committee that had been appointed by the Supreme Court had said that there is no evidence of any breach of the Minimum Public Shareholding (MPS) requirements or manipulation of stock prices.

“We have complete faith in the due process of law and remain confident of the quality of our disclosures and corporate governance standards. In light of these facts, the timing of these news reports is suspicious, mischievous and malicious - and we reject these reports in their entirety.” added Adani Group.

The OCCRP report

The report by OCCRP, citing review of files from multiple tax havens and internal Adani Group emails, pointed out that its investigation found at least two cases where the "mysterious" investors bought and sold Adani stock through such offshore structures.

The two men, Nasser Ali Shaban Ahli and Chang Chung-Ling, who OCCRP claimed have longtime business ties to the Adani family and have also served as directors and shareholders in Group companies and firms associated with Gautam Adani's elder brother Vinod Adani, "spent years buying and selling Adani stock through offshore structures that obscured their involvement - and made considerable profits in the process."

OCCRP alleged, "The documents...show that the management company in charge of their investments paid a Vinod Adani company to advise them in their investment."

Last week, PTI reported that the Soros-funded organisation, which calls itself an investigative reporting platform formed by 24 non-profit investigative centres... spread across Europe, Africa, Asia and Latin America, is planning publication of fresh allegations against a top Indian corporate.

OCCRP asked if Ahli and Chang should be considered to be acting on behalf of Adani promoters. "If so, their stake in the Adani Group would mean that insiders altogether owned more than the 75 per cent allowed by law," OCCRP said, adding this violated Indian listing law.

OCCRP went on to state that there was no evidence Chang and Ahli's money for their investments coming from the Adani family, but said its investigation showed there "is evidence" that their trading in Adani stock "was coordinated with the family".

"The Adani Group's rise has been staggering, growing from under $8 billion (Rs 66,109.2 crore) in market capitalisation in September 2013 -- the year before Modi became prime minister -- to $260 billion (Rs 21.49 lakh crore) last year," OCCRP highlighted. “The conglomerate is active in a dizzying array of fields, including transportation and logistics, natural gas distribution, coal trade and production, power generation and transmission, road construction, data centres, and real estate, OCCRP added.

(With inputs from PTI)