US indictment: Did Adani Group flout disclosure norms? Sebi seeks answer

MUMBAI: Markets regulator

Sebi

is having a preliminary look at whether the Adani Group had violated disclosure norms while its chairman and some top officials dealt with a

US DoJ

grand jury subpoena and investigations by the FBI for wire frauds, violations of securities and other laws in the country for over a year.
Sebi has directed the exchanges to ask the Adani group companies about any violations of listing rules (Listing Obligation & Disclosure Requirements, or LODR) relating to the DoJ and the SEC cases, sources said. Usually in situations like the Adani case now, the regulator will always carry out some preliminary investigations. However, to reach the stage of adjudication (a formal, full length investigation) it would take time, another source said.
On the morning of Nov 21, the US DoJ and SEC separately said that Gautam Adani, chairman of the Adani group, and seven entities associated with the group were indicted for various criminal violations as the group bribed to get business in India with part of the paybacks routed through the US.
The DoJ’s indictment notice said that in March 2023, Sagar Adani was investigated by the FBI in the US. On his part, Gautam Adani was also aware of the investigations by various arms of the US govt. Still, the group had preferred to withhold full information and at times even misled investors, media and the exchanges, the DoJ said.

Despite their knowledge of the US govt investigations, the group had told the media house that was working on a news article about some ongoing DoJ investigations that it was “not aware of any investigation against” its chairman Gautam Adani. In the same article, the group said that it always maintained “the highest standards of governance” and that it was “fully compliant with anti-corruption and anti-bribery laws in India and other countries,” the DoJ paper noted.

On March 19, 2024, the group also falsely informed the NSE and BSE that Adani Green Energy had not received any notice from the (US DoJ) in respect of the allegations referred to in the news article earlier that month. The DoJ indictment alleged that Gautam Adani and Sagar Adani had forced people at the group “to make false and misleading statements” about the US govt’s investigations against Adani Green Energy.
On Thursday, the Adani group denied all allegations in the indictment paper. On Friday, an Adani group spokesperson said it had not received any query from the markets regulator.
The bourses had asked all 10 Adani group companies to explain the rise in volumes in their stocks. The notices to the companies were put up on the respective websites of the bourses. However, there was no mention of violations of LODR. As a policy, Sebi doesn’t publicly comment about ongoing investigations.
As a result of the indictment notices from the US DoJ and the SEC, all stocks of the Adani group had crashed on Thursday and investors in those stocks together lost about Rs 2.2 lakh crore. The indictment notices were a surprise for the investors since the group had not disclosed about the investigations, market players said.
On Friday, the intensity of the slide in stock prices was mostly arrested with the combined loss in market cap limited to about Rs 10,300 crore, BSE data showed.