The Adani Group faces another setback as the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP), a global network of investigative journalists, claims to have accessed exclusive documents revealing substantial investments in Adani stocks through opaque Mauritius-based funds. These documents, sourced from various tax havens, bank records, and internal Adani Group emails, were made public on August 31, following initial sharing with foreign newspapers.
The OCCRP investigation alleges that two individuals with long-standing ties to the Adani family, Nasser Ali Shaban Ahli and Chang Chung-Ling, were involved in investments related to Adani stocks, with holdings reaching $430 million at one point. These investments were made through two Mauritius-based funds, Emerging India Focus Fund and EM Resurgent Fund, which traded in Adani company shares between 2013 and 2018. The report suggests that these offshore structures obscured their involvement and yielded substantial profits. Additionally, it reveals that the management company overseeing their investments paid a firm associated with Vinod Adani, Gautam Adani’s elder brother, for investment advice.
If the Indian stock market regulator, Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI), considers Ahli and Chang as part of the promoter group, it could imply a violation of laws designed to prevent artificial inflation of share prices. According to Indian regulations, promoters can hold a maximum of 75% of shares in listed companies, with the remaining 25% available for public trading.
The Adani Group, however, has denied these allegations, dismissing them as “recycled” and suggesting that they are part of an orchestrated effort by “Soros-funded interests” supported by some foreign media outlets. George Soros, a Hungarian-born American financier, is mentioned in the context of these allegations.
This controversy is rooted in a previous report by New York-based short-seller Hindenburg Research, released on January 24. The Hindenburg report accused the Adani Group of stock market manipulation and accounting fraud over several decades. While Hindenburg named offshore companies allegedly involved in investing in Adani stocks, it did not disclose the individuals behind these investments. The OCCRP investigation claims to have identified this missing link.
The Hindenburg report raised numerous concerns, including allegations that the Adani Group had pledged artificially inflated stocks for loans, potentially putting its finances at risk. It also alleged the use of overseas shell companies, many managed by Vinod Adani, to generate fake turnover and siphon funds from its seven listed companies. These allegations had a significant impact on the Adani Group’s stock prices, causing a sharp decline in their combined market capitalization.
Despite a subsequent recovery in the combined market capitalization of the group’s listed companies to Rs 10.85 lakh crore as of August 30, OCCRP’s allegations led to a drop to Rs 10.49 lakh crore on the following day. As of September 4, Gautam Adani ranks as the 24th richest individual globally, with a net worth of $54.2 billion.
