Adani Group rejects fresh allegations of stock price manipulation by OCCRP

NEW DELHI:  Adani Group on Thursday rejected the fresh allegations of stock price manipulation.The Organised Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP), a global network of investigative journalists, in a report, has claimed massive investments were channeled into Adani Group stocks through opaque funds based in Mauritius. OCCRP has alleged that the promoter group family secretly invested in their own companies via close affiliates and bypassed the existing rules and regulations that prevent stock price manipulation.

Reacting to the allegations, Adani Group has said that the 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. Soros is referred to George Soros, a Hungarian-American businessman, who has been critical of billionaire Adani Group and PM Narendra Modi-led government.

The port-to-power conglomerate said that the fresh 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 foreign portfolio investors. It added that the matter attained finality in March 2023 when the Supreme Court ruled in their favour.

“Clearly, since there was no over-valuation, there is no relevance or foundation for these allegations on transfer of funds. Notably, these FPIs are already part of the investigation by the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI). As per the Expert Committee appointed by the Supreme Court, there is no evidence of any breach of the Minimum Public Shareholding (MPS) requirements or manipulation of stock prices,” said Adani Group.

Most Adani Group stocks on Thursday fell by 2-5%. Shares of the Group companies are yet to recover from the allegations of stock price manipulation first raised by the US-based short seller Hindenburg Research in January this year. The stock rout once had erased more than half, or about $150 billion, of the combined market cap of 10 Adani companies.

OCCRP said that Nasser Ali Shaban Ahli of UAE and Chang Chung-Ling of Taiwan are individuals who spent years trading hundreds of millions of dollars worth of Adani Group stock. The two men have close ties to the Adani family, including appearing as directors and shareholders in affiliated companies.