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One of India's seniormost lawyer and BJP leader Mahesh Jethmalani has alleged that a US-based businessman with Chinese links had commissioned a report by Hindenburg Research, which led to a significant drop in the Adani group companies shares in January-February 2023.
The senior lawyer claimed that Mark Kingdon, the American businessman behind Kingdon Capital Management LLC, had hired Hindenburg Research to prepare a report on the Adani Group. Jethmalani in a social media post on "X" alleged that "spy" Anla Cheng and her husband Mark Kingdon hired Hindenburg Research to prepare a report on Adani group companies. The senior lawyer further said that they used Kotak Mahindra Investments Limited (KMIL) to set up a trading account for short-selling Adani shares and make profits in millions at the cost of Indian retail investors. "While all the foregoing is now in the public domain, the smoking gun not hitherto known is that Anla Cheng - a Chinese American - is an influential lobbyist for #Chinese interests in the US. She was CEO of #SupChina a pro China media corporate initiative which morphed into an entity called The China Project after a whistleblower accused SupChina of news subversion in China's interest in a sworn statement before the US Congress." Jethmalani said in his post https://x.com/JethmalaniM/status/1808839724951273587?t=Sh5L5aWuMHj4PulBs1WIKg&s=08 "#TheChinaProject shut down after calls for an investigation into its subversive activities by some US senators including having links with the Chinese Communist Party. The latter clearly has a bone to pick with the Adani group." Jethmalani added Kingdon also hired Kotak Mahindra International Limited (KMIL) to set up an offshore fund and an offshore account to trade in Adani shares. Jethmalani alleged that Kotak created Kotak India Opportunity Fund (KIOF) for trading in Adani shares. KIOF took large short-positions in Adani shares through the Mauritius route before the preparation of the Hindenburg report. The funds for the trade, USD 40 million, were provided by Kingdon's Master Fund, a substantial shareholding, which is owned by the Kingdon family including Anla Cheng. Through short-selling Kingdon made millions of dollars at the cost of eroding the market cap of Adani group companies shares and significant loss to Indian retail investors. Jethmalani claimed that Kingdon and Cheng's actions were prompted to nullify Adani Group's interests in projects in several parts of the world, including outbidding Chinese players for the Haifa Port in Israel and coal projects near Sri Lanka's Jaffna. In another post Jethmalani raised three other questions on the Adani-Hindenburg saga 1. Who introduced the Kingdons to KMIL, what due diligence was conducted by KMIL regarding the Kingdons and did it participate in the short sell as a principal. 2. Did all the Indian actors - politicians, businessmen and financial intermediaries who aided Hindenburg with the preparation of its Adani report and its publication after the short sale know about its short selling motives and did they financially benefit from it? 3. Did KMIL and the said Indian actors know about the Chinese connection behind Hindenburg? Jethmalani in his post on "X" has tagged Indian market regulator SEBI while raising the above mentioned three questions. Kotak Mahindra International Ltd has earlier said through a media release that Hindenburg was never a client of the group's K-India Opportunities Fund (KIOF) and Kotak Mahindra International Ltd (KMIL). (ANI)
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