New Delhi, February 18 The Congress on Wednesday cited a report by the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP) to allege that two of its close associates used illicit funds to amass large stakes in the Adani Group, 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 made by the Congress in the past. While the Adani Group has not yet issued a direct response to the latest allegations by the OCCRP, reportedly funded by figures like George Soros and the 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 beneficial political relationships.
"New revelations have emerged regarding the use of illicit 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 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 approximately USD 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 ongoing investigation of 22 of the 24 matters relating to 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 August 25, 2023, that it was investigating; and the laundering of INR 20,000 crore by shell companies into the Adani Group, he said.
An investigation that the Supreme Court had directed to be completed within two months, as of March 2, 2023, has now conveniently gone on for nearly three years without closure, Ramesh pointed out.
At the 2014 G20 Summit in 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 repeatedly proven by his brazen protection of the Adani Group. However, the Adani MegaScam 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 January-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 favored business group, he alleged.
Ramesh further said that it also encompasses the privatization 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 defense 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 INR 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 INR 2,000 crore (USD 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.