What to know about Gautam Adani and stock rout after Hindenberg report - The Washington Post

On Tuesday, he was accused of fraud and market manipulation by U.S.-based short sellers at Hindenburg Research, leading to the companies that he controls shedding tens of billions in value.

Born to a textile merchant in the western state of Gujarat, Adani spent his early career as a small-time plastics trader who traveled by scooter.

James Crabtree, an India specialist who wrote a book on the country’s billionaires, called Adani “modest” in a 2018 Australian Financial Review article.

The two men first met in the 1990s in their home state of Gujarat, when Adani was an up-and-coming businessman and Modi a promising, mid-level official in the Bharatiya Janata Party.

Critics such as Adani Watch, an Australian-based nonprofit, said the Hindenburg allegations, if proved true, “are just another example of what happens when crony capitalism and regime favoritism create a perceived culture of impunity.”

“This puts the Indian regulator in a difficult position about what it should do next: Seek to restore investor trust by thoroughly probing the allegations of market manipulation, or dismiss them as the handiwork of foreigners jealous with India’s rise?” he said in an email.