Adani Group has rejected the allegations made by OCCRP and has said that its timing is malicious.
The Adani Group today rejected the “recycled allegations” made by Organised Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP) on Adani family’s partners using ‘opaque’ funds to invest in its stocks. It has said that the timing of these news reports is suspicious, mischievous and malicious.
“We categorically reject these 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,” Adani Group said.
The OCCRP report comes ahead of the Supreme Court hearing on the allegations made in the Hindenburg report, which had also made similar allegations ahead of the Group’s FPO.
“These attempts are aimed at, inter alia, generating profits by driving down our stock prices and these short sellers are under investigation by various authorities. As the Hon’ble Supreme Court and SEBI are overseeing these matters, it is vital to respect the ongoing regulatory process,” Adani said.
It 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, related party transactions and investments through FPIs.
“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. Clearly, since there was no over-valuation, there is no relevance or foundation for these allegations on transfer of funds,” Adani said.
OCCRP shared the results of its investigation with The Guardian and Financial Times, which have also carried news reports based on files from multiple tax havens, bank records, and internal Adani Group emails.
The Group said that it is unfortunate that these publications, which sent them queries, chose not to carry their response in full.
“We have complete faith in the due process of law and remain confident of the quality of our disclosures and corporate governance standards. In light of these facts, the timing of these news reports is suspicious, mischievous and malicious - and we reject these reports in their entirety,” Adani said.