In Short OCCRP report names Nasser Ali Shaban Ahli and Chang Chung-Ling The two men spent years trading Adani stocks worth millions of dollars, claims report Both have close ties to the Adani family, said OCCRP A report published by the Organised Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP) on August 31 named two men, claiming that they spent years trading hundreds of millions of dollars worth of Adani Group stocks. They are Nasser Ali Shaban Ahli and Chang Chung-Ling. The report, which has been strongly rejected by the Adani Group, alleged that the two men “secretly invested in the massive conglomerate”, adding that they have close ties to its majority owners, the Adani family. ADVERTISEMENT “The two men, Nasser Ali Shaban Ahli and Chang Chung-Ling have longtime business ties to the family and have also served as directors and shareholders in Adani Group companies and companies associated with one of the family’s senior members, Vinod Adani,” the report added. 50 MUST READ Fan gets injured after Rapper 50 Cent throws mic into crowd at US concert TRENDING TOPICS: Chandrayaan-3 INDIA Bloc Meet Asia Cup Points Table Binge Watch Guide Article 370 Hearing OCCRP, a global network of investigative journalists focused on exposing corruption, said hundreds of millions of dollars were invested in publicly traded Adani stock through “opaque investment funds” based in Mauritius. Who are Nasser Ali Shaban Ahli and Chang Chung-Ling? Nasser Ali Shaban Ahli from the United Arab Emirates and Chang Chung-Ling from Taiwan have been named in the OCCRP report as associates of Vinod Adani, the elder brother of billionaire and Adani Group founder Gautam Adani. The OCCRP report, citing documents it has accessed, said the two associates spent years “buying and selling Adani stock” through offshore structures that obscured their involvement and made considerable profits in the process. “They also show that the management company in charge of their investments paid a Vinod Adani company to advise them in their investments,” the OCCRP report added. Two destination funds linked to them were also named in the report – Mauritius-based investment funds Emerging India Focus Fund (EIFF) and EM Resurgent Fund (EMRF). Citing documents, OCCRP said, “A large percentage of the money was placed into these funds by two foreign investors — Chang from Taiwan and Ahli from the United Arab Emirates — who used them to trade large amounts of shares in four Adani companies between 2013 and 2018.” “At one point in March 2017, the value of the investments in Adani Group stock was $430 million,” the OCCRP report noted. OCCRP went on to add that the money followed a “convoluted trail”, making it difficult to follow. But it was channeled through four companies and a Bermuda-based investment fund called the Global Opportunities Fund (GOF). The four companies that were used for the investments in EIFF and EMRF were: The Gulf Arij Trading FZE in UAE, owned by Ahli; Lingo Investment Ltd owned by Chang; Mid East Ocean Trade (Mauritius), of which Ahli was the beneficial owner and Gulf Asia Trade & Investment Ltd (BVI), of which Ahli was the “controlling person”. ADVERTISEMENT OCCRP claimed that these investments resulted in significant profits worth hundreds of millions over the years as EIFF and EMRF “repeatedly bought Adani stock” for a lower price and sold it at a high. “Between them, at the peak of their investment in June 2016, the two funds held free-floating shares of four Adani Group companies ranging from 8 to nearly 14 percent: Adani Power, Adani Enterprises, Adani Ports, and Adani Transmissions,” the OCCRP report said. Past involvement Both Chang and Ahli were individuals with established connections to the Adani family, said the OCCRP report, adding that they found themselves entangled in two separate government investigations over the years. The first case, dating back to 2007, involved their alleged involvement in an illicit diamond trading scheme investigated by India's Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI). In this case, Chang was identified as the director of three Adani-affiliated companies implicated in the scheme, while Ahli represented a trading firm also linked to the wrongdoing. Notably, Chang shared a residential address in Singapore with Vinod Adani. ADVERTISEMENT Meanwhile, the second case from 2014 revolved around an alleged over-invoicing scam uncovered by the DRI. This investigation revealed that Adani Group companies were purportedly channeling funds out of India by inflating payments to their foreign subsidiaries, potentially amounting to as much as $1 billion for imported power generation equipment. Once again, Chang and Ahli featured prominently as they served as directors of two companies, one based in the UAE and another in Mauritius, which handled the proceeds from this scheme, both later owned by Vinod Adani. Additionally, Chang's involvement extended to a Singapore company listed as a "related party" in a disclosure by an Adani entity, as highlighted in the Hindenburg report. “Aside from these past links to the Adanis, there is evidence that Chang and Ahli’s trading in Adani stock was coordinated with the family,” the OCCRP report said. Chang and Ahli’s role Quoting an anonymous source familiar with the Adani Group’s businesses, the report highlighted that “The fund managers in charge of Chang and Ahli’s investments in EIFF and EMRF received direct instructions on the investments from an Adani company”. ADVERTISEMENT Excel Investment and Advisory Services Limited, the company named by the OCCRP source, is based in a secretive offshore zone in the United Arab Emirates where corporate records are not available. While the OCCRP report said there's no direct proof linking Chang and Ahli's Adani Group investments to the Adani family's funds, documents obtained by the organisation indicated that Vinod Adani utilised a Mauritius-based fund for his own investments. Ahli and Chang have not yet commented on the report. However, in an interview with The Guardian, Chang Chung-Ling denied knowledge of any secret purchases of Adani stock.