In the 27th instalment of the series, 'Hum Adani Ke Hai Kaun' (HAHK), the Congress party asked three questions to prime minister (PM) Narendra Modi about Vinod Adani and his alleged network of shell companies.
In a release, Jairam Ramesh, member of Parliament (MP) and general secretary for communications of Congress, says, " This is also the fourth in a sub-series titled ‘Dikh Raha Hai Vinod’ related to the central role played by Gautam Adani’s elder brother Vinod Adani and his network of shell companies engaged in opaque financial transactions.."
Here are the three questions asked by Congress to PM…
(1) The Adani group has repeatedly brushed aside questions about Vinod Adani claiming that he is uninvolved with group management and decision-making. Yet almost every week there are fresh disclosures that show this to be a laughable deception. In the 19 February 2023 HAHK we had pointed to the Adani Group announcement on 16 September 2022 that “the Adani Family, through Endeavour Trade and Investment Ltd, a special purpose vehicle, has successfully completed the acquisition of Ambuja Cements Ltd and ACC Ltd” and a SEBI filing that stated “the ultimate beneficial ownership of the Acquirer is held by Mr. Vinod Shantilal Adani and Mrs. Ranjanben Vinod Adani.” If Vinod Adani is at such arms length from the Adani group, how have Adani Enterprises executives become senior managers at Ambuja Cements and ACC? Why does the Competition Commission of India assert that Endeavour “belongs to the Adani Group”?
(2) Media reports show that the shell company Acropolis Trade and Investment owns Xcent Trade and Investment, which in turn owns Endeavour. The Mauritius-based Acropolis and Xcent both have Subir Mittra, who heads the Adani Family Office, as a director. Vinod Adani is a director in Acropolis which reported US$7bn (billion) (Rs51,400 crore) as revenue and profit (given near-zero expenses) in 2020-21 but zero income and a $25,980 loss in 2021-22. How does a shell company that owns these critical infrastructure firms have revenues of Rs51,400 crore in one year and zero the next? Will agencies like the enforcement directorate (ED) ever investigate where these funds are coming from and where are they going?
(3) Endeavour acquired stakes in Ambuja Cements and ACC by buying Holderind Investments from the previous owner. Holderind presently lists Mittra as a director and Rogers Capital Corporate Services as the management company. As we mentioned in our 28 February 2023 HAHK, one of Rogers’ directors, Jayechund Jingree, is a former director in Adani Enterprises (then named Adani Exports) who is also connected to five investment funds that invested as anchor investors in Adani Enterprises’s ill-fated Rs20,000 crore follow-on public offer. Jingree is also reportedly connected with fugitive stock brokers Ketan Parekh and Dharmesh Doshi. A sixth Mauritius-based fund that invested as an anchor investor, The Great International Tusker Fund, also has directors who are co-directors with Vinod Adani and Subir Mittra in other firms. Is this not suggestive of a long established network of Adani executives involved in money-laundering and round-tripping as alleged by governmental and private investigators? When will you stop protecting your cronies and financiers and allow the law to take its course?
Read about previous questions here…
