Adani family partners used offshore funds to invest in Indian group's stocks -report
investing.comBy Krishn Kaushik, Aditya Kalra and Scott Murdoch
NEW DELHI (Reuters) -Millions of dollars were invested in publicly traded Adani Group stocks through funds in Mauritius, the Organised Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP) reported on Thursday, saying this «obscured» the involvement of alleged business partners of India's Adani family.
Citing a review of files from tax havens and internal Adani Group emails, the non-profit global network of investigative journalists said two individual investors with «longtime business ties» to the Adani family used such offshore structures to buy and sell Adani shares between 2013 and 2018.
The Adani Group, which is controlled by billionaire Gautam Adani, said it categorically rejected what it called recycled allegations in the OCCRP report «in their entirety».
Nasser Ali Shaban Ahli from Dubai and Chang Chung-Ling from Taiwan, the two investors named in the OCCRP report, did not respond to Reuters requests seeking comment.
Reuters has not independently verified the allegations made in the OCCRP report, which comes after U.S.-based short-seller Hindenburg Research accused the Adani Group in January of improper business dealings.
Shares in Adani Group companies fell on Thursday amid renewed corporate governance concerns. Adani Enterprises, the group's flagship company, closed down 3.7%, while Adani Ports, Adani Power, Adani Green, Adani Total Gas, Adani Energy Solutions and Adani Wilmar slid between 2% and 4.3%.
«If true, it could mean a violation of Indian financial market regulator SEBI laws for publicly listed stocks, that could sway the outcome or push SEBI to dig deeper in its ongoing investigation into the group,» CreditiSights senior research analyst Lakshmanan R. said.
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