Adani blasts ‘funded interests’ after media raise new questions
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Indian billionaire Gautam Adani’s conglomerate has slammed what it described as “Soros-funded interests” after media outlets claimed the Adani Group had used complex and secretive offshore operations to boost its market value, citing documents obtained by a network of investigative journalists.

A non-profit organization, Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP), with billionaire George Soros’ Open Society Foundations as its financial backing, unearthed the documents, and its research was shared with the Financial Times and The Guardian.

According to OCCRP, 4% of its funding comes from Soros foundations. The US State Department, the UK Foreign Office, and the Ford Foundation also support it.

In its report on the OCCRP investigation, the Financial Times said it shed light on the relationship between Adani and Narendra Modi, as well as exposed “bespoke investment structures” at a Bermuda firm used exclusively by Adani associates for stock trading.

People familiar with the investment firm’s structures claimed “parallel sets of books and a Russian doll of companies and funds” were used to disguise the trades.

As Adani Group companies rose to become one of India’s most powerful businesses, associates of the Adani family may have quietly acquired stock via an undisclosed, complex operation in Mauritius.

The reports come seven months after Hindenburg Research — a company that earns money by betting against stocks it believes are overinflated or fraudulent — released a report accusing Adani of pulling off “the largest con in corporate history” and “brazen stock manipulation” that had massively boosted the value of the port-to-energy conglomerate.

Adani Group described the Hindenburg report as a “lies” and an attack on India, but its value collapsed in the days following publication, wiping out about half of its founder’s wealth.

Likewise, the company expressed its dissatisfaction with the new report that was released this week.

A statement sent on Thursday categorically rejected the recycled allegations. There appears to be yet another concerted effort to revive the meritless Hindenburg report by Soros-backed interests supported by the foreign media.”