The Organised Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP), an organization funded by individuals such as George Soros and the Rockefeller Brothers Fund, is reportedly planning to conduct an investigative expose on certain corporate entities in India, according to a Thursday report.
OCCRP’s Pending Investigation: Potential Shockwaves in the Corporate World
OCCRP, which describes itself as “an investigative reporting platform consisting of 24 nonprofit investigative centers located across Europe, Africa, Asia, and Latin America,” may release a report or a series of articles, as per sources cited by PTI who are knowledgeable about the matter.
If this information is accurate, this expose would come several months after Hindenburg Research, a U.S.-based short seller, sent shockwaves through the markets with a damning report on the Adani Group led by Gautam Adani.
Established in 2006, OCCRP specializes in reporting on organized crime and often collaborates with media outlets to publish its investigative findings. On its website, it lists institutional donors, including George Soros’s Open Society Foundations, known for supporting various global causes, along with the Ford Foundation, Rockefeller Brothers Fund, and Oak Foundation.
According to PTI sources, this ‘expose’ may involve foreign funds investing in the stocks of the corporate entity. The specific corporate entity in question has not been disclosed yet, but regulatory agencies are said to be closely monitoring the capital market.
Adani Group’s Controversial Year: Allegations, Investigations, and Political Backlash
Hindenburg Research, in a report dated January 24, alleged accounting fraud, stock price manipulation, and improper use of tax havens, which led to a significant decline in the market value of the Adani Group. Adani Group has refuted all of these allegations.
In May of the same year, a Supreme Court-appointed expert committee investigated claims made in the Hindenburg Report and found evidence of a buildup in short positions on Adani Group stocks before the report’s release. Profits were made by closing these positions after prices dropped following the publication of the allegations.
The Enforcement Directorate (ED), a financial crime-fighting agency, reported having intelligence about potentially violative and coordinated selling by specific parties just before the release of the Hindenburg report. It suggested that this may lead to credible charges of concerted destabilization of the Indian markets and recommended that the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) investigate such actions under securities laws.
Suspicious trading activity was observed involving six entities, including four Foreign Portfolio Investors (FPIs), one corporate entity, and one individual.
Following the Hindenburg report, George Soros remarked that the upheaval in Gautam Adani’s business empire might weaken Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s grip on the government. This statement was strongly contested by the BJP as an attack on Indian democracy.
