New Delhi: The Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) has asked the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP) to give it access to “key documents” about the allegations of stock manipulation and accounting fraud against the Adani Group, according to the Economic Times.The network of investigative reporters has, however, refused the Indian market regulator’s request, saying that the sources of information are accessible through official channels.OCCRP cited these documents in a report published in August this year that the Indian conglomerate routed funds to two foreign individuals to invest in its own shares using Mauritius-based platforms. The report provides more details of manipulation alleged by the US short-seller Hindenburg Research in January this year, which SEBI is probing.According to ET, OCCRP told SEBI that its long-standing policy is not to provide any documents beyond what is published. The Indian regulator was told that lawyer Prashant Bhushan, who is representing one of the petitioners in the Adani-Hindenburg case before the Supreme Court, has access to some of the documents.OCCRP said, “On September 1, Bhushan tweeted one of the key documents we had relied upon that showed Sebi was warned by the DRI (Directorate of Revenue Intelligence) in 2014 about alleged stock manipulation. On September 18, a filing was done in Indian Supreme Court, where some of the other documents were attached. Clearly, Bhushan has access to at least some of the same documents we used in our story. Hence our referral.”The January 2014 DRI alert was sent to former SEBI chairman U.K. Sinha that the Adani Group was allegedly siphoning money by overvaluing power equipment imports and investing them in listed companies via entities located in Mauritius and Dubai.OCCRP further said, “The ongoing investigation into the Adani Group is the outcome of a two-year-long investigation by a network of reporters, across many geographies. Information was sourced from many places, including multiple tax havens, bank records and internal Adani emails. All of our sources of information are accessible to Sebi through official channels.”The market regulator has told the top court that shareholders linked to certain foreign portfolio investors in Adani companies are located in tax havens and “establishing their economic interest remains a challenge”.Recently, the Financial Times also published a report which alleged that Adani overpriced coal imports, which saw it rake in high profits but at the cost of overcharging customers.`The Adani Group has denied the allegations made against it by Hindenburg, OCCRP and Financial Times.
