Adani Group under investigation for money laundering

Please find below the letter written by former IAS officer (former secretary to government of India) and noted anti-corruption crusader Mr EAS Sarma to various central investigating agencies about the suspected money laundering by the Adani Group.

Mr Sarma has pointed out that the Supreme Court appointed Special Investigation Team on black money is investigating the matter and the State Bank of India should not have signed the MoU with the group under investigation for money laundering :

Date: 24 November 2014 7:37:57 am IST

Subject: Ongoing investigation into suspected money-laundering by Adani Group

To

The CVC,

Directorate of Revenue Intelligence

Govt of India

Director, Enforcement Directorate

Director, CBI

Sir,

Subject:- Ongoing investigation into suspected money-laundering by Adani Group

The enclosed news reporst (Indian Express dated 23-11-2014: “Business SIT, CBI to look into Adani Group case”) indicates that SIT is conducting an investigation into Adani Group's suspected money laundering case. It appears that the company has over-invoiced imports to the tune of Rs.5,468 Crores and “siphoned off” the amount, apparently to some unknown account.

From the ICIJ website (http://offshoreleaks.icij.org/search country=&q=adani&ppl=on&ent=on&adr=on), it appears that some of the sharehoders of the Adani Group have offshore accounts which could have been in existence without RBI's knowledge. I enclose extracts of the relevant pages of that website for your information. Also, I enclose an extract of the shareholding pattern of Adani Group to show the link between the holders of the offshore accounts and the group.

I request Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) to investigate these accounts as a part of the main investigation.

It is ironic that SBI should impromptu announce a huge loan of $1 billion to Adanis in the presence of the Prime Minister for the Group's Carmichael coal mining project in Australia, without looking at the implications of the ongoing investigation. The loan amount committed approximately equals the amount laundered according to the news reports!

I am confident that you will take these circumstances into account and place all the facts before the apex court appointed SIT.

I request you to inform the Finance Minister and the PMO urgently of the status of the investigation. I hope that each one of you will carry out the investigation expeditiously and fearlessly so that the the facts of the case may be established and the culprits, if any, brought to book.

I am marking a copy of this mail to MOF and the Cabinet Secretary for their information.

Yours sincerely,

E A S Sarma

14-40-4/1 Gokhale Road

Maharanipeta

Visakhapatnam 530002

Email: eassarma@gmail.com