Gautam Adani loses top India billionaire spot to Mukesh Ambani amid selloff in Adani group stocks

Gautam Adani is no more India's richest billionaire, following the recent sharp fall in Adani group stocks. At $83.80 billion, he is the tenth richest in the world, next to Mukesh Ambani who was worth $84.40 billion at last count.

In September 2022, Adani had become the second-richest person globally, surpassing Amazon founder Jeff Bezos with a net worth of $147 billion. His fortunes touched $150 billion mark that month, as per Bloomberg Billionaire index. But since the group stocks are on a fall.

That drop has exaggerated after a report by short-seller Hinderburg Reserach made several allegations on Adani group-- from accounting frauds to stock manipulations, and to money laundering. Hindenburg Research suggested that Gautam Adani’s brother Rajesh Adani and brother-in-law Samir Vora, who it said played key roles in the diamond trading import/export scheme using offshore shell entities to generate artificial turnover. Adani Enterprises barely managed to get full subscription to its Rs 20,000 crore follow-on public offer. Some of the group stocks such as Adani Transmission and Adani Total Gas have seen relentless fall.

It also alledged that Adani's brother  Vinod Adani, found at the centre of government investigations “regularly”, manages a network of offshore entities that have collectively moved billions of dollars into Adani’s publicly listed and private entities, Hindenburg Research said.

Hindenburg Research said these companies engage in stock parking and manipulation, and money laundering through the private companies into the listed ones.

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