January 26, 2023: Short seller firm Hindenburg disclosed its short position in Adani Group firm ahead of India’s market opening on Wednesday. It accused billionaire Gautam Adani of “brazen” stock manipulation and accounting fraud.

“After extensive planning, we have brought a short position in Adani Group firm through U.S.-traded bonds and non-Indian-traded derivative instruments,” Hindenburg stated in a lengthy report published on its website.

“Today revealing the findings of our 2-year investigation, presenting evidence that the INR 17.8 trillion Indian conglomerates Adani Group has engaged in a brazen stock manipulation and accounting fraud scheme over decades,” Hindenburg said in its report.

Adani-affiliated stocks decreased, with Adani Port losing more than 5%. Adani Power’s share price decreased by over 4.5%, and Adani Transmission also decreased by about 5%.

Adani Group, known as Hindenburg’s report a “malicious combination of selective misinformation,” adding that it has “always complied with all laws.”

“The timing of the report’s publication betrays a brazen, mala fide intention to damage the Adani Group’s reputation,” the group’s chief financial officer Jugeshinder Singh stated in an email.

The group also said Hindenburg is publishing its report “without making any attempt contacting us or verify the factual matrix.”

Hindenburg alleged the Securities and Exchange Board of India was lax in its search for Adani’s offshore funds and enforcement of regulations that would have subjected Adani companies to delisting.

Since becoming a billionaire in the year 2008, Adani is now one of the wealthiest people with a $119 billion fortune, the Bloomberg Billionaires Index has stated.

In August, the firm sought a hostile takeover of the Indian media convention NDTV, which in a filing stated the move was “carried out without any consent” from its founders.