Hindenburg Report Fallout: 5 Adani Companies Pay SEBI Rs 1.5 Crore Settlement

The settlement closes the ongoing investigation into these companies 'unless later issues emerge' and does not involve admission of fault by the Adani group companies.

The Wire Staff

The settlement closes the ongoing investigation into these companies 'unless later issues emerge' and does not involve admission of fault by the Adani group companies.

hindenburg report fallout 5 adani companies pay sebi rs 1 5 crore settlement

A file image of the SEBI building. Photo: PTI/File.

New Delhi: Five Adani Group companies have paid Rs 1.51 crore to market regular Sebi after adjudication proceedings related to corporate governance and disclosure concerns raised in the Hindenburg report. Adani Enterprises paid the highest settlement at roughly Rs 67 lakh. Adani Green Energy paid Rs 45.5 lakh and Adani Total Energy, AWL Agribusiness and Adani Energy Solutions paid Rs 9.6 lakh each, as per a report.

The violations identified by Sebi included related-party transactions not disclosed in the FY2013 annual report by Adani subsidiary Adani Estates Pvt Ltd and Vakoder Investment Ltd, the related party. Audit and review report related errors were also identified by Sebi, reported the Economic Times.

For Adani Total and AWL Agri Business, the violation allegedly related to the limited review report for the quarter ended June 2021, September 2017 and December 2021, which it said was signed by Shah Dhandharia & Co without a peer review certificate.

In the case of Adani Green Energy, Sebi alleged that the audit report for the financial year ended March 2019 and limited review reports for the quarters ended Septembner 2018 and June 2019 signed by Dharmesh Parikh & Co (auditors) without a valid peer review certificate, the publication said.

The Sebi order states that the settlement is not a final order in case other issues emerge. Further, the settlement has been made without the concerns accepting any wrongdoing.

Sebi also examined allegations made in the Hindenburg report related to Adani Ports and Special Economic Zone, Adani Transmission, and Adani Wilmar.

Hindenburg Research, a short-seller that wound up its operations in January 2025, had in a 2023 report accused the Adani Group of “brazen stock manipulation”, an “accounting fraud scheme” and pulling the “largest con in corporate history”. Adani has denied all the charges.

The allegations had wiped off over $135 billion in market value from the Adanis’ empire.

A follow up report from Hindenburg published in 2024 had focussed on Sebi and its then chief, Madhabi Puri Buch as well as her husband of having held “stakes in both the obscure offshore funds used in the Adani money siphoning scandal.”

Sebi had launched several investigations into the accusations in the report. In its aftermath, SEBI released a statement asserting that chairperson Madhabi Puri Buch, had “recused herself in matters involving potential conflict of interest.” A Right to Information request was filed, seeking details on cases in which Buch had recused herself due to conflicts of interest. SEBI responded that information on Buch’s recusals was “not readily available” and that compiling it would “disproportionately divert resources,” invoking Section 7(9) of the RTI Act.

This article went live on September twenty-fourth, two thousand twenty six, at forty-three minutes past two in the afternoon.

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