Chinese link behind Hindenburg’s attack on Adani: Jethmalani

New Delhi: In a sensational claim, senior lawyer Mahesh Jethmalani has alleged that a businessman with Chinese links had commissioned the report by short-seller Hindenburg Research which led to shares of Adani Group companies taking a hit.

In a lengthy post on X social media platform, Jethmalani claimed that Mark Kingdon, the American businessman behind Kingdon Capital Management LLC, had hired Hindenburg to prepare a report on the Adani Group.

“Here’s a huge smoking gun in the sordid episode of the short sale of Adani shares by Hindenburg,” he posted on X.

“For those who want to learn about accomplished #Chinese spy #AnlaCheng who along with her husband #MarkKingdon hired #Hindenburg for a research report on #Adani, engaged the services of Kotak to facilitate a trading account to short sell Adani shares,” Jethmalani further said.

They “made millions of dollars from their short selling; who eroded Adani market cap enormously, with no thought for several Indian retail investors who they financially decimated through their nefarious design to promote Chinese strategic interests by destroying an Indian corporate competitor who had prevailed in many bids over the Chinese State in strategic international projects,” the senior lawyer alleged.

Kingdon also approached Kotak’s international investment arm Kotak Mahindra Investments Ltd (KMIL) to set up an offshore fund as well as offshore accounts to trade in Adani shares. This led to the creation of the Kotak India Opportunity Fund (KIOF).

Earlier this week, the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) issued a show-cause notice to Hindenburg Research, Nathan Anderson and the entities of Mauritius-based foreign portfolio investor (FPI) Kingdon for trading violations in the scrip of Adani Enterprises Ltd, leading up to the Hindenburg report and thereafter.

An investigation by the markets regulator also exposed that Kotak Mahindra and Hindenburg conspired together to take short positions in Adani shares.

The ‘smoking gun’ referred to by Jethmalani was his revelation that Kingdon’s wife Anla Cheng, a Chinese-American, who has a large shareholding in the Kingdon Master Fund, is a lobbyist for Chinese interests in the United States. “She was the 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,” the lawyer posted.