Mumbai: Earlier this month, the regulator Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) asked banks to share details on the infrastructure conglomerate Adani’s Mauritius connections. The regulator, as reported in The Morning Context, has sought to check the beneficial owners of offshore funds and foreign portfolio, investors, by end of September.The news report further claims that SEBI is, in particular, investigating the relationship between two Mauritius-based funds — The Great International Tusker Fund and Ayushmat Ltd — which participated in Adani Enterprises’ 2.4 billion USD (which translates to Rs 20,000 crore), follow-on public offer.“The share sale was called off after US-based short seller Hindenburg Research published a report last month alleging stock manipulation, accounting irregularities and fraud at the group,” The Morning Context report points out.Easy regulations and taxation policies of Mauritius make it attractive for overseas investors, allowing for tax evasion and roundtripping of funds, The Morning Context report suggests.Hindenburg Research, in its report published last month, which Adani group has vehemently denied, has claimed that Mauritius-based funds were a vehicle to “cut the trails and conceal the identity of an investor bringing cash from overseas” into the Indian stock market.The Morning Context piece, reported by Advait Palepu, points to the two old investigations in which the promoter entities based in Mauritius were investigated and cleared by the depository companies. Palepu writes that the data with the Corporate and Business Registration Department in Mauritius reveals that five of the 13 funds have several commonalities including directors, addresses and their management companies. All five funds are ultimately linked to one Jayechund Jingree, a taxation and investment structure specialist in Mauritius who was a director of the Adani group’s local subsidiary 20 years ago.“We also found that directors of a sixth fund — The Great International Tusker Fund — are closely linked to Mauritius entities that are associated with Vinod Adani, Adani group chairman Gautam Adani’s older brother, and Subir Mittra, the head of the Adani Family Office,” the article claims. While the connections show common directors and ownership between the investment entities, they do not reveal details about the source of funds, The Morning Context report shows.
