OCCRP, the Media Organization Targeting Adani, Funded by the US: French Newspaper

Opposition leaders, including Rahul Gandhi, Prashant Bhushan, and Mahua Moitra, have extensively quoted OCCRP-funded reports to allege corruption involving Adani and the BJP government

On September 4, 2023, just one day before the Supreme Court hearing on the Hindenburg-Adani case, Financial Times, OCCRP, and The Guardian collaborated to publish an article against the Adani Group titled “Secret Paper Trail Reveals Hidden Adani Investors.” Reports are emerging that these articles were funded by the US-backed organization—Organized Crime & Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP).

“The OCCRP, the largest organized network of investigative media in the world, has hidden the extent of its links with the US government, this investigation can reveal. Washington supplies half of its budget and has the right to veto its senior staff,” said a detailed investigative report by Mediapart, a French newspaper.

In India, OCCRP has tied up with several journalists and few English newspapers. OCCRP was created by Drew Sullivan in 2008 in Sarajevo, the Bosnian capital, initially as a media network focused on investigating organized crime and corruption in the Balkans—a region where Soros has been very active and funded numerous initiatives. Sixteen years later, OCCRP has become, as Drew Sullivan himself describes it, “the largest investigative reporting organization on Earth.”

From its earlier focus on oil-rich countries, including Russia and Venezuela, OCCRP has been gradually shifting its attention toward India and its energy producing organizations. The Adani Group, a key player in India’s energy sector through its investments in green energy, has been at the center of this focus. The group has faced several attacks over the last two years from journalists affiliated with OCCRP and working in various media houses, including The Financial Times and The Guardian.

In India, OCCRP collaborated with Indian Express on one of its projects—the Panama Papers. Journalists affiliated with this massive organization, serving the interests of the US, include Ravi Nair and Anand Mangale. Ravi Nair is part of OCCRP and writes for The Wire and Newsclick. The Wire, an online news portal, is promoted by Siddharth Varadarajan, a US citizen and hardcore left-wing supporter. Varadarajan also served as the editor with ‘The Hindu’, a leading business and politics daily in India.

India’s Ravi Nair and Anand Mangale, along with other left-wing journalists have extensively collaborated with the western media to leak Indian data. In the case of Adani, it is believed that these journalists provided all the data used by FT to write anti-India and anti-Adani articles. They were also the source of information for Hindenburg, the New York based activist short-seller, who targeted Adani Group in 2023.

Prashant Bhushan, who had petitioned the Supreme Court for a probe into the allegations and action against SEBI for missing its deadline for a report on the Hindenburg case, extensively used Financial Times and The Guardian to influence the Supreme Court’s decision. The allegations from US short-seller Hindenburg and the report from OCCRP targeting the Adani Group cannot be treated as gospel, the Supreme Court stated today.

Opposition leaders, including Congress and Mahua Moitra, have widely quoted OCCRP reports against Adani to target the BJP government.

The Adani Group has issued several statements defending itself, claiming that various collaborators are working together to target it. It has specifically named George Soros as a financier of these attacks, noting that Open Society, a foundation founded by Soros, is one of the backers of OCCRP.