Gautam Adani, Asia’s richest man, suddenly found himself at the middle of a firestorm on Wednesday after top marketer Hindenburg Research claimed his India-based business empire was built through fraud.
Adani, 60, experienced a rise in personal wealth last 12 months, whilst the worldwide economy experienced a period of slowing growth.
He is the chairman of the Adani Group, a $21 billion sprawling conglomerate that owns multiple Indian airports, the country’s largest private sector port, media giant Latest Delhi Television and diverse other holding firms.
A school dropout, Adani began his profession within the diamond industry before joining a plastics factory run by his brother, in line with the Financial Times.
Eventually, Adani began his own company, which began as an import-export operation within the commodity sector and step by step expanded to other initiatives.
A biography on Adani Group’s website describes its namesake founder as a “first-generation entrepreneur” who focuses on “nation-building” through infrastructure development. He is married and has two sons, Karan and Jeet.
![Adani with Boris Johnson in 2021.](https://nypost.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/01/gautam-adani-richest-007.jpg?w=1024)
“For Mr. Adani, constructing a nation means transforming the Indian coast by constructing a series of ports and logistical hubs,” reads the biography. “For him, nation constructing also means strengthening the country’s energy security and bridging the urban-rural divide by providing electricity to several hundred million people living in India’s interior.”
Along with his high-profile business profession, Adani also survived the terrorist attacks in Mumbai, India in 2008, in addition to a kidnapping and ransom attempt in 1998, in line with the BBC and other establishments.
Adani faced considerable criticism during his rise to international wealth and prominence. Critics checked out his close relationship and support of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
The industrialist is so well connected in Indian political circles that he is nicknamed “Modi’s Rockefeller.”
![Gautam Adani](https://nypost.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/01/gautam-adani-richest-002.jpg?w=749)
Adani was an early promoter of Modi’s Bharatiya Janata party. In 2014, Modi reportedly flew to the capital Latest Delhi on Adani’s private jet to take over as prime minister.
His wealth has skyrocketed since Modi took power, from around $5 billion in 2014 to $121 billion at the top of 2022. in line with Bloomberg.
During this era, Adani Group won various government contracts and infrastructure projects, in line with the Financial Times.
![Gautam Adani](https://nypost.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/01/gautam-adani-02.jpg?w=1024)
“I can inform you that Modi is not helping anyone directly,” Adani told the Financial Times in 2013. “Modi is helping industries through politics and never allowing any nonsense into the system.”
Adani’s net value rose $44 billion last 12 months – greater than another person tracked by Bloomberg’s Billionaires Index – as he flew past Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos and Berkshire Hathaway’s Warren Buffett.
However the Adani Group’s empire got here under unprecedented scrutiny after Hindenburg – an influential firm that had previously targeted electric vehicle firms Nikola and Lordstown Motors – claimed it had “discovered evidence of brazen accounting fraud, stock manipulation and money laundering in Adani, which have taken place over the many years.
![Gautam Adani](https://nypost.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/01/gautam-adani-01.jpg?w=693)
“Adani completed this gigantic feat with the assistance of government auxiliaries and the cottage industry of multinational firms facilitating these activities,” Hindenburg said in a lengthy client memo about his findings.
Hindenburg noted that the Adani Group had faced a minimum of “4 major government fraud investigations” and noted that “8 of the 22 key leaders are members of the Adani family.”
Shares controlled by Adani lost the equivalent of about $12 billion after the Hindenburg allegations were revealed.
![Gautam Adani](https://nypost.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/01/gautam-adani-richest-001.jpg?w=1024)
After the damning Hindenburg report, Forbes estimated Adani is the fourth richest person on this planet, with a net value of $119.1 billion, ahead of billionaires Bernard Arnault, Elon Musk and Bezos. The Bloomberg Billionaire Index also ranked Adani is the fourth richest person with a net value of $119 billion.
Adani Group denied the allegations in an announcement from its chief financial officer, Jugeshinder Singh.
“We’re shocked that Hindenburg Research released the report on January 24, 2023 with none try to contact us or confirm the factual matrix,” Singh said. “The report is a malicious combination of selective disinformation and outdated, baseless and discredited allegations which were tested and rejected by India’s highest courts.”