Opaque funds in group cos: OCCRP

New Delhi The Organised Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP) on Thursday trained its guns on billionaire Gautam Adani’s group, alleging hundreds of millions of dollars were invested in publicly traded group stocks through Mauritius-based ‘opaque’ investment funds managed by partners of promoter family, charges the conglomerate denied vehemently. The fresh allegations by an organisation funded by likes of George Soros and Rockefeller Brothers Fund come months after a US short seller wiped away close to $150 billion in value of Adani group stocks with allegations of accounting fraud, stock price manipulation and improper use of tax havens by the ports-to-energy conglomerate run by billionaire Gautam Adani. OCCRP is a global network of investigative journalists with staff on six continents.

Adani Group has denied all Hindenburg allegations. Citing review of files from multiple tax havens and internal Adani Group emails, OCCRP said its investigation found at least two cases where the ‘mysterious’ investors bought and sold Adani stock through such offshore structures. The two men, Nasser Ali Shaban Ahli and Chang Chung-Ling, who OCCRP claimed have longtime business ties to the Adani family and have also served as directors and shareholders in Group companies and firms associated with Gautam Adani’s elder brother Vinod Adani, “spent years buying and selling Adani stock through offshore structures that obscured their involvement - and made considerable profits in the process.”