Value of company run by one of the world’s richest people slides after new allegations by a New York short-seller

This week, fresh accusations by activist short-seller Hindenburg Research led to a heavy share sell-off at Adani’s group of companies, wiping off around $2.4 billion in their total market value, according to Reuters.

It came after New York-based Hindenburg accused the head of India’s capital markets regulator of having links to an offshore fund structure also used by the Adani Group.

Hindenburg, whose business model is based on betting against a company’s stock price, has a history of accusing Adani Group of misconduct.

It isn’t the first time it has tanked Adani Group’s market value. The Adani Group’s stock value fell by around $150 billion in 2023 after Hindenburg Research first leveled accusations at it in January.

In a report titled “How The World’s 3rd Richest Man Is Pulling The Largest Con In Corporate History,” Hindenburg alleged that the company used tax havens improperly and was involved in stock manipulation and fraud “over decades.”

This led to an investigation into the sprawling multibillion-dollar empire headed by the Supreme Court of India in collaboration with the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI).

Citing whistleblower documents, Hindenburg’s latest report claims that the head of the SEBI, Madhabi Puri Buch, has a conflict of interest in the Adani investigation due to stakes she and her husband held in offshore entities that Hindenburg said were used to artificially inflate shares of companies owned by the Adani Group.

The couple released a statement saying that they “strongly deny the baseless allegations and insinuations made in the report.”

In a separate statement, the regulator said allegations made by Hindenburg Research against the Adani Group had been investigated, according to Reuters.

The Adani Group categorically denied all accusations, with a statement on its website calling the report “malicious, mischievous and manipulative selections of publicly available information.”

The statement also accused Hindenburg of arriving at “pre-determined conclusions for personal profiteering with wanton disregard for facts and the law.”

Adani’s wealth surged in 2022, making him the third richest person in the world at the start of 2023. However, following the allegations from Hindenburg Research, he fell to 22nd place on the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.

The Index estimates his net worth to be $104 billion, which currently places him as the 12th richest person in the world, behind Mukesh Ambani, the richest man in Asia.

The latest accusations come at a difficult time for Adani. His company is trying to expand internationally. Last week, Business Insider reported that Karan Adani, Gautam Adani’s son, wants to loosen China’s grip on seaports and transform India into a major trading hub.

Hindenburg Research, Adani Group, SEBI, and Madhabi Puri Buch did not immediately respond to BI’s request for comment.