Adani Group on Thursday rejected the claims made earlier in the day by the Organised Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP). The allegations, which the group termed as “recycled”, claimed that millions of dollars were pumped in publicly traded group stocks through Mauritius-based ‘opaque’ investment funds, managed by partners of the Adani family.
OCCRP said its investigation found at least two cases where the “mysterious” investors bought and sold Adani stock through such offshore structures.
The organisation claimed that two men, Nasser Ali Shaban Ahli and Chang Chung-Ling have longtime business ties to the Adani family. It said they held positions as directors and shareholders in various Group companies and enterprises linked to Vinod Adani, the elder brother of Gautam Adani. “…spent years buying and selling Adani stock through offshore structures that obscured their involvement – and made considerable profits in the process,” the group alleged.
What is OCCRP?
The Organised Crime and Corruption Reporting Project is funded by the likes of controversial US billionaire George Soros and Rockefeller Brothers Fund. The allegations came months after US short seller Hindenburg had alleged business malpractices in the company in January, wiping away close to USD 150 billion in value of Adani group stocks. The company has denied all Hindenburg allegations.
OCCRP was co-founded by Paul Radu and Drew Sullivan in 2007. Both of them worked as investigative journalists before they found the organisation.
On its website, the OCCRP describes its mission to develop “a global network of investigative journalists” to expose “crime and corruption” for public good. OCCRP provides media outlets and journalists with “a range of critical resources and tools including digital and physical security and allows those covering the most sensitive topics to work in teams with trusted editors,” it says.
World Bank Live, the World Bank’s associated website, says that OCCRP has won numerous awards, including the Daniel Pearl Award, the Global Shining Light Award, the Tom Renner Award for Crime Reporting, the European Press Prize, and the Skoll Award for Social Entrepreneurship for its investigative reports.
OCCRP’s work on the Panama Papers with the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists won a 2017 Pulitzer Prize in Journalism, it says.
