The Mauritian regulator has revoked the licenses of an Adani-linked enterprise under investigation: Report
The Mauritian regulator has revoked the licenses of an Adani-linked enterprise under investigation: Report
The Financial Services Commission (FSC) of Mauritius withdrew the company’s business and investment licenses. The firm is the majority shareholder of two funds that invested in listed Adani firms and are now under investigation. The license was revoked eight months before the startling discovery against the Adani Group by US-based short seller Hindenburg.
According to The Indian Express, the Financial Services Commission (FSC) of Mauritius has terminated the business and investment licenses of Emerging India Fund Management Ltd (EIFM), the controlling shareholder of two Mauritius-based funds, in May 2022.
The authorities accused EIFM of violating multiple articles of regulations intended to combat money laundering and promote corporate governance, according to the newspaper.
On its website, the Mauritius FSC said that EIFM “violated” several parts of the Financial Services Act, the Securities Act, the Financial Intelligence and Anti-Money Laundering Regulations (2003 and 2018), and the Code on the Prevention of Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing.
Notably, EIFM and EM Resurgent Fund are two of the 13 international Adani investors being investigated under the Money Laundering Prevention Act (PMLA).
However, after the publication of the Hindenburg report, a senior official of the Mauritian FSC said that a “initial assessment” of the firms affiliated with the Adani Group in Mauritius revealed no violations of the law.
According to the most recent data, EIFM’s two Mauritius funds owned 3.9% of Adani Power Limited, 3.8% of Adani Transmission Limited, and at least 1.73% of Adani Enterprise Limited, according to the study.
In January of this year, US-based short seller Hindenburg Research accused Adani Group of accounting fraud, stock price manipulation, and unlawful use of tax havens. Following this, the Supreme Court directed SEBI to investigate the accusations and report back.
In a status report last month, Sebi notified the Supreme Court that it had finished the investigation in 22 of the 24 cases against the Adani group and was seeking information from five tax havens on the real owners who had invested in its group entities.
Last month, the Organised Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP) stated that millions of dollars were invested in publicly listed Adani Group equities via Mauritius-based funds, which “obscured” the participation of accused Adani family business partners in India.
According to the non-profit global network of investigative journalists, two individual investors with “longtime business ties” to the Adani family (Nasser Ali Shaban Ahli from Dubai and Chang Chung-Ling from Taiwan) used such offshore structures to buy and sell Adani shares between 2013 and 2018.
The Adani Group vehemently denied “in their entirety” what it termed repeated claims in the OCCRP report.
