(News Bulletin 247) – The American activist fund Hindenburg Research accuses the president of the Indian stock market regulator of not having been impartial in the Adani affair.
The head of India’s securities regulator on Sunday rejected allegations by US investment research firm Hindenburg Research that its past offshore investments prevented it from properly investigating allegations of fraud against India’s Adani Group.
“We strongly deny the baseless allegations and insinuations contained in the report” by Hindenburg Research, Madhabi Puri Buch said in a statement, adding that “we have no hesitation in disclosing all financial documents” necessary “to any authorities who may request them.”
A sprawling conglomerate
On Saturday, Hindenburg Research accused her and her husband of holding investments in offshore funds that Vinod Adani, older brother of Indian billionaire Gautam Adani who heads the eponymous group, also allegedly used.
The US company notably suggested in a report that the regulator may have been “reluctant to follow a lead that could have led to its own president”.
Last year, the Adani Group, a sprawling Indian conglomerate active in everything from port terminals to power generation, saw its stock market value wiped off by more than $150 billion following a bombshell report by Hindenburg Research that accused it of “brazen” corporate fraud.
A “vast labyrinth of offshore fictitious entities”
The report claimed that Gautam Adani’s elder brother Vinod operated “a vast maze of offshore shell entities” in tax havens including Mauritius, Cyprus and several Caribbean islands.
Gautam Adani has denied the fraud allegations, which he called last year a “deliberate attempt” to damage his conglomerate’s image for the benefit of short sellers.
Hindenburg, an investment firm specializing in short selling, not only tracks corporate misdeeds, but also makes money betting on stock prices to fall.
Gautam Adani is considered close to Hindu nationalist Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who also hails from the western state of Gujarat. Opposition parties and other critics say their relationship has helped Adani win contracts unfairly.
(With AFP)
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