Paper Trail Reveals Secret Adani Investors, FT Reports

Potentially controversial owners of Adani stock were identified for the first time since short-seller Hindenburg Research alleged the Adani Group engaged in corporate fraud and stock price manipulation, the Financial Times reported.

(Bloomberg) — Potentially controversial owners of Adani stock were identified for the first time since short-seller Hindenburg Research alleged the Adani Group engaged in corporate fraud and stock price manipulation, the Financial Times reported.

Documents shared with the FT by the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project said Nasser Ali Shaban Ahli from the United Arab Emirates and Chang Chung-Ling from Taiwan could be associates of Vinod Adani, brother of the conglomerate’s founder and billionaire Gautam Adani, according to the newspaper.

The investigative network said the two men had operated through the Global Opportunities Fund in Bermuda, it reported. Their investments were overseen by an employee of Vinod Adani, incurring questions over whether they were front men used to bypass rules for Indian firms that prevent share price manipulation, it said.

The investigation is yet another broadside against the ports-to-power conglomerate, which has been firefighting the allegations of wide-ranging corporate malfeasance made in January. That report prompted a probe by Indian regulators and wiped out more than $150 billion in market value from Adani’s listed companies a one point. The conglomerate has denied any wrong doing.

Those shares have recouped around $43 billion as the conglomerate’s founders pre-paid debt and share-backed loans, while also selling billions worth of stock to overseas investors like GQG Partners LLC and Qatar Investment Authority.

Read more: India SEBI Submits Adani Probe Status Report in Supreme Court

The Securities and Exchange Board of India, the country’s capital markets watchdog, said a probe into the Adani Group showed violations of rules on disclosures by listed entities and limits on the holdings of offshore funds, Reuters reported on Monday, citing two sources it didn’t identify.

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