As allegations swirled in 2023 that the Adani Group’s yearslong stock rally was driven by insider manipulation, two close associates of the Adani family privately admitted to their bankers that they held billions of dollars in the conglomerate’s shares through multiple hedge funds, according to bank records obtained by OCCRP and the Financial Times.
The records, from Swiss private bank REYL Intesa Sanpaolo and its Dubai unit, indicate the holdings were still in place when U.S. short seller Hindenburg Research published its January 2023 report accusing Gautam Adani of “pulling the largest con in corporate history” by manipulating his company’s market value.
The REYL records bolster a central premise of the Hindenburg allegations: that large, opaque pools of capital tied to Adani family associates may have helped support Adani share prices in violation of Indian rules designed to limit insider ownership and manipulation, the news outlets said.
The newly revealed documents also indicate the scale of shareholdings by the two associates, identified as Taiwanese businessman Chang Chung-Ling and Nasser Ali Shaban Ahli from the United Arab Emirates, the FT reported. Ahli held $1.02 billion through a BVI-based company, Gulf Asia Trade & Investment Ltd., and Chang held $1.02 billion though his BVI-based company, Lingo Investment Ltd., according to OCCRP.
Gautam’s brother Vinod Adani held $5.6 million through his UAE-based company Kommerce Trade & Services, according to the report.
Swiss prosecutors have been investigating Chang in a money laundering and document forgery probe since 2021, suspecting he acted as a “front man” for Adani investments, according to OCCRP. As part of the probe, Swiss authorities froze approximately $311 million tied to Adani.
U.S. federal prosecutors separately indicted Gautam Adani and his nephew in November 2024 over alleged bribery promises, with a parallel SEC civil complaint ongoing. As the founder and chairman of the Adani Group, Gautam Adani was estimated to be the world’s third richest man at the time the Hindenburg report was published.
Read more at OCCRP
Read more at Financial Times