Metropolis Desk-
India’s Adani Group is dealing with a new round of scandal as a new investigation claims it utilized “opaque” finances to get around regulations that forbid manipulating share prices.
According to the investigation, the group used offshore vehicles to invest millions of dollars in publicly traded equities of its businesses.
It specifically mentions two private investors who are said to have bought and sold equities on the company’s behalf.
The Adani Group denied the allegations, labeling them as “meritless”.
The Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP), a global network of investigative journalists, released the study on Thursday. Additionally, articles based on the papers they released were published in The Guardian and Financial Times.
In India and other countries, the Adani Group is active in a variety of industries, including commodities trading, airports, utilities, ports, and renewable energy. Gautam Adani, a multibillionaire who ranks No. 24 on Forbes’ real-time list of billionaires, is its leader.
Given his perceived closeness to Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Mr. Adani has long been the target of accusations from opposition politicians that he has benefitted from his connections to the political system, which he vigorously refutes.
The businessman became embroiled in a significant issue earlier this year after US-based short seller Hindenburg Research accused his organization of “brazen” stock manipulation and accounting fraud. Hindenburg has also claimed that the organization was inflating share values by investing in its equities through the use of foreign corporations and shell firms.
The company refuted the allegations and referred to them as “malicious,” but as a result, the market value of its shares plummeted by billions, forcing it to postpone a share sale. The country’s market regulator is currently overseeing a probe into the claims by a panel that was established by the Supreme Court of India.
According to the OCCRP study, two investors “spent years trading Adani Group stock valued at hundreds of millions of dollars.” It claims that the two men have “close ties to the Adani family” and have served as directors and stockholders of businesses connected to the group.
The accusations have not been examined independently by the BBC.
No proof that the money OCCRP used for their investments came from the Adani family, according to OCCRP, was found.
However, it went on to say that the reporting and papers examined by their journalists revealed ” evidence” that their trading in Adani stock “was coordinated with the family”.
The OCCRP said the question of whether this arrangement is a violation of the law rests on whether the two investors “should be considered to be acting on behalf of Adani ‘promoters’, a term used in India to refer to the majority owners of a business”.
There was no immediate public reaction from the two men but the Adani Group questioned the timing of the news report, calling it “suspicious, mischievous, and malicious”.
“We have complete faith in the due process of law and remain confident of the quality of our disclosures and corporate governance standards,” it said.
Shares of Adani Enterprises, the group’s flagship company, were trading down 2.82% on the benchmark BSE index.
Source- BBC News
