Mauritius-Based Opaque Investments In Adani Group, Says New Investigation. "Recycled Allegations," Company Responds (Image: adani.com)

Exclusive documents obtained by OCCRP, a global network of investigative journalists, show how hundreds of millions of dollars were invested in publicly traded Adani stock through opaque investment funds based in the island nation of Mauritius. According to Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP), the documents they have investigated include files from multiple tax havens, bank records, and internal Adani Group emails, and shed light on “some foreign owners of publicly listed Adani Group stock are, in fact, fronts for its majority owners.”

These documents, according to the journalists’ group, have been corroborated by people with direct knowledge of the Adani Group’s business and public records from multiple countries.

However, the Adani Group, a massive conglomerate with interests in everything from airports to television stations in India and outside the country, categorically rejected the claims by the OCCRP and called them “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,” a statement from the Adani Group said.

The group, in January this year, was accused of brazen stock manipulation by a New York-based short seller and it caused Adani stock to plummet, triggered protests, and prompted an investigation by India’s Supreme Court.

The group said 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, party transactions and investments through FPIO.

“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,” the statement added.

According to the new report by the OCCRP, the details of which have been shared with international media houses The Guardian and Financial Times, in at least two cases — representing Adani stock holdings that at one point reached $430 million — the mysterious investors turn out to have widely reported ties to the group’s majority shareholders, the Adani family.

“The two men, Nasser Ali Shaban Ahli and Chang Chung-Ling, have longtime business ties to the family and have also served as directors and shareholders in Adani Group companies and companies associated with one of the family’s senior members, Vinod Adani,” the report said.