Industrialist Gautam Adani’s net worth continues to take a beating as the shares of Adani Group companies traded mostly in the red. On Monday, the business tycoon lost $8.21 billion dollars bringing his position on the list down to number 11 in the Forbes Billionaire list.
According to the Bloomberg Billionaires index, Adani’s personal wealth got wiped out of $34 billion in just three trading days.
The shares of Adanni Group companies plummeted following the publication of a report by Hindenburg Research alleging “brazen stock manipulation and accounting fraud.”
Earlier on Wednesday, the billionaire’s total wealth decreased by $6 billion and by another $20.8 billion on Friday, dropping to $84.4 billion. Adani boasted of a net worth amounting to $121 billion prior to the publication of the report.
With a current fortune of $84.4 billion, Adani now sits just one spot above rival and Reliance Industries Ltd. chairman Mukesh Ambani, whose net worth is $82.2 billion.
According to the scathing report by the US-based activist short-seller firm Hindenburg Research, Adani Group is involved in ndulging in practices such as blatant stock manipulation, money laundering, and accounting fraud over decades.
As per this report, the stock price of seven listed companies of the group went up by an average of 819 per cent over a period of three years.
The Hindenburg report stated: “We have uncovered evidence of brazen accounting fraud, stock manipulation, and money laundering at Adani, taking place over the course of decades. Adani has pulled off this gargantuan feat with the help of enablers in government and a cottage industry of international companies that facilitate these activities.”
The US-based short seller also said that Vinod Adani- the elder brother of Gautam Adani– ran a labyrinth of shell companies through his close associates. Hindenburg identified 38 Mauritius shell entities run by Adani’s elder brother Vinod Adani. Besides this, it also identified entities in Cyprus, Singapore, the UAE, and several Caribbean Islands discreetly controlled by Vinod Adani.
Currently, Adani languishes below Mexico's Carlos Slim, Google co-founder Sergey Brin and former Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer on the Billionaires Index.
