TRIAL BY FIRE

Formal charges in a US court, an air marked by accusations of bribery and concealment of information, the attendant political backlash, pressure on stock prices, valuation losses. Yet the famed Adani growth appetite and business resilience stays

- M.G. Arun

IF there were many who left a mark on 2024, billionaire Gautam Adani was one on whom 2024 left a mark. Even if similar, it was not a straight carryover from the storm of 2023, when US shortseller Hindenburg levelled accusations that his group had inflated share prices by round-tripping funds through a maze of dodgy shell companies abroad. Judged only for their content, the new charges would have been par for the course in India. But they acquired more serious dimensions because of who made them: prosecutors at a federal court in Brooklyn, New York. A counter-charge of having vested interests would be difficult to make: this was the US Department of Justice, not a shortseller with skin in the game. Even if the case peters out to a settlement, the global stain would be somewhat more resistant to full repair.