Cong alleges use of benami funds to amass large stakes in Adani Group

The Congress on Wednesday cited an Organised Crime and Corruption Reporting Project report to allege the use of benami funds to amass large stakes in the Adani Group by two of its close associates, and claimed that Prime Minister Narendra Modi has "stonewalled" the party's demand for a JPC to investigate all aspects of the "scam" involving the conglomerate.

The Adani Group has repeatedly denied all allegations that have been made by the Congress in the past. While there was no immediate reaction from the Adani Group on the latest allegations by the OCCRP, reportedly funded by the likes of George Soros and Rockefeller Brothers Fund, it has previously rejected charges made in OCCRP reports.

 

Congress general secretary in-charge communications Jairam Ramesh said there is a difference between genuine entrepreneurship which the Congress welcomes, supports and celebrates, and business expansion through cozy and mutually lucrative political relationships.

"New revelations have just emerged regarding the use of benami funds to amass large stakes in the Adani Group by close Adani associates Chang Chung-Ling and Nasser Ali Shaban Ahli," Ramesh said on X.

The Organised Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP) has found evidence, including admissions by Chang and Ahli to a Swiss bank, that the two held far larger stakes in Adani companies than previously believed, including about $3 billion in Adani stock through various hedge funds until as recently as 2023, Ramesh said.

Meanwhile, there has been no visible progress by SEBI in its pending investigation of 22 of 24 matters relating securities transactions of the Adani business conglomerate, including allegations of insider trading in Adani Group companies; violations of rules relating to minimum public shareholding; the 13 "suspicious transactions" that SEBI told the Supreme Court on 25 August 2023 it was investigating; and the laundering of ₹20,000 crore by shell companies into the Adani Group, he said.

An investigation that on March 2, 2023 the Supreme Court had directed be completed within two months has now conveniently gone on for nearly three years without closure, Ramesh pointed out.

At the November 2014 G20 Summit at Brisbane, Prime Minister Modi had called for global cooperation "to eliminate safe havens for economic offenders", to "track down and unconditionally extradite money launderers," and to "break down the web of complex international regulations and excessive banking secrecy that hide the corrupt and their deeds", he recalled.

"Yet the sheer hypocrisy of his words has been proven repeatedly by his brazen protection of the Adani Group. The Adani MegaScam, however, extends far beyond the scope of SEBI's investigations," Ramesh claimed.

As the Congress has argued in its 'Hum Adani ke Hain Kaun (HAHK)' series of questions to the prime minister in Jan-March 2023, it also encompasses the misuse of agencies such as the ED, CBI, and the Income Tax Department to pressure firms into divesting assets in critical infrastructure sectors, to the benefit of the prime minister's most favoured business group, he alleged.

Ramesh further said that it also encompasses based privatisation that enabled the creation of Adani monopolies in critical sectors such as airports and ports and that will soon extend to other areas like cement, power and defence equipment as well.

He said the "scam" also encompasses the misuse of diplomatic resources to funnel contracts to Adani in Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, and elsewhere.

It also includes the import of over-invoiced coal and siphoning out of ₹12,000 crore from India between 2021 and 2023 through trading firms linked to Chang and Ahli, which contributed to sharp increases in electricity prices in Gujarat from Adani power stations, Ramesh said.

It also encompasses a ₹2,000 crore ($250 million) bribery scheme allegedly involving Gautam Adani and seven associates to secure high-priced solar power contracts in India, Ramesh said, adding that this is now under investigation by US authorities.

The Congress has been consistently demanding a JPC to investigate all these aspects of the "Modani Mega Scam", Ramesh said, adding that "naturally the PM has stonewalled".

"Not only that but the Adani Group continues to keep spreading its tentacles into one business after another with the PM's full backing demonstrating that its real core competence is the PM's patronage," he said.

There is a difference between genuine entrepreneurship which the INC welcomes, supports and celebrates, and business expansion through cozy and mutually lucrative political relationships, Ramesh said.