India’s Adani Group is facing fresh controversy following allegations of using “opaque” funds to manipulate share prices. The Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP), a global network of investigative journalists, published a report asserting that the group invested millions of dollars in publicly traded stocks of its own companies through offshore structures. The claims have raised worries about corporate administration and market transparency.
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Sources about Adani Group (For R&D)
- Everything you need to know about Adani Group
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- Adani Group: How The World’s 3rd Richest Man Is Pulling The Largest Con In Corporate History
- Adani Group Companies List
The OCCRP report claims that two individual investors, Nasser Ali Shaban Ahli from the United Arab Emirates and Chang Chung-Ling from Taiwan, traded hundreds of millions of dollars’ worth of Adani stock.
These investors are said to have close connections to the Adani family and were recognized as longtime business partners of the conglomerate.
The report suggests that these investors utilized offshore structures based in Mauritius to buy and sell Adani stocks, obscuring their involvement and potentially violating Indian securities laws.
The report further features that these offshore investments were made through opaque investment funds located in Mauritius, potentially allowing the investors to bypass regulations and manipulate share prices.
The reports acquired by OCCRP were verified by people with direct information on the Adani Group’s business and freely available reports from different nations. These documents shed light on how significant amounts of money were channeled into Adani stocks through these offshore entities.
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The Adani Group has strongly rejected the allegations, marking them as “meritless” and blaming the OCCRP for endeavoring to drive down the group’s stock prices.
The group emphasizes its commitment to legal processes and corporate governance standards, expressing confidence in the quality of its disclosures. The group additionally questions the timing of the news report, describing it as “suspicious, mischievous and malicious.”
This is not the first time the Adani Group has faced allegations of financial irregularities and stock manipulation. In January, a report by US-based short seller Hindenburg Research accused the group of engaging in stock manipulation and accounting fraud.
Hindenburg Research affirmed that the group was utilizing overseas entities and shell companies to inflate its stock prices.
While the Adani Group denied these claims too, the report essentially affected the group’s market value, causing billions in losses and leading to the cancellation of a proposed share sale.
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The Adani Group’s billionaire founder, Gautam Adani, has long been associated with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The group has confronted allegations of profiting from political ties, which the two Adani and Modi deny.
The claims against the Group have provoked expanded examination of corporate governance practices in India’s family-dominated business landscape.
India’s market regulator, the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI), has been investigating the allegations made by Hindenburg Research.
The OCCRP’s report adds one more layer to the continuous examinations. The potential violation of SEBI laws and the involvement of offshore funds could have implications for the Adani Group’s future and its relationships with investors.
The claims and debates altogether affect the Adani stock prices. The group’s shares and bonds declined following the publication of the OCCRP report.
While the group has managed to recover some of its losses in recent months through measures such as debt repayment and attracting new investors, the recurring controversies continue to cast a shadow over its financial reputation.
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