If you had asked me anything about the ‘Bulls and the Bears’ two days back, I’m afraid all I knew was that a bull is a male bovine. And bears are either black and grizzly or snowy white and cute. But with the news of the plummeting of Adani Group, which led the investors to lose nearly 4.2 lakh crores, by now, even those who were unfamiliar with stocks and shares are not only familiar with them but are also left with shocks and stares.

So, with a little bit of research, and a little bit of rewinding, Google informed that when Gautam Adani became the world’s third richest man, there were many who were actually suspicious of the sudden rise of this business conglomerate.

For someone to have started a journey in 1988 with Adani Exports, it was difficult to believe that the market cap of the Adani Group soon rose to 250 billion. What sounded even more incredulous was that in the last two and a half years his wealth had increased by thirteen times. From 10 billion dollars in 2020, to 137 billion dollars was an incredible feat.

Although some attributed it as the result of a calculated risk taking ability of a remarkable businessman; and although in the words of the remarkable businessman himself in an interview where he said it was only ‘Mehnat, Mehnat and Mehnat’ that had everything to do with his growth, back then there were rumours that Gautam Adani and his Adani group progress was only a ‘bubble rise’. One that could explode at any time!

They felt that the company was expanding itself only on the basis of loans. The borrowings were pretty diversified, forty per cent of which had been taken from the banks. There were also allegations that Adani Group was a deeply overleveraged company which was investing aggressively in its existing and acquired business, mainly by taking debt. And that even if a single company of the business empire would default because of debts, it would become difficult for all business empires to get out of the debt trap. Fast forward to now and it looks like the nightmare is coming true.

So who was it who had the mettle to give thousands of crores of financial jolt to Gautam Adani? Who was the person behind Adani’s Hindenburg report which indicated that the firms which are owned by Asia's wealthiest man, have been engaged in ‘a brazen scheme of stock manipulation and accounting fraud for decades’? Who was the one who brought down Adani from Number Three to Number Seven? Who was the man who was finally able to wake up a slumbering nation that was content in turning a blind eye to such a blatant display of crony capitalism?

His name was Anderson. Nathan Anderson.

The thirty eight year old Nathan Anderson, lived for a while in Israel, where he was taking classes at the Hebrew University. Simultaneously, he also worked as a paramedic by driving an ambulance. This experience probably helped him in thinking and acting under extreme pressure. He finally graduated from the University of Connecticut with a bachelor’s degree in international business.

Anderson then began his career in finance at a data firm, where he worked with a financial software company called FactSet Research Systems Inc. Needless to say his job was to ‘set’ the ‘facts’ right! Anderson worked with Harry Markopoulos and credits him as his role model. Markopolos, who was also in awe of his co-worker, was quoted by the Financial Times as saying that ‘Nathan Anderson is a world class digger. If there are facts he will find them and all too often he’ll discover that there are skeletons in the closet.’

Since the ‘world class digger’ discovered that his passion was in unearthing ‘scams’, in 2017 Anderson went on to launch his own firm. He called it ‘Hindenburg Research’.

This forensic financial research firm, apart from analysing the equity, credit, and derivative markets, also looks for accounting irregularities, illegal or unethical practices and undisclosed issues. It bears its name in honour of the 1937 doomed Hindenburg airship, which caught fire, killing 35 people. Anderson called this tragedy a ‘man-made disaster that could have been totally avoided’.

Thus, his firm that specialises in financial research, made it a point to look out for similar man-made disasters floating around in the market and aim to shed light on them before they lure in more unsuspecting victims. Hindenburg claims on its website that it investigates any ‘man-made catastrophes’ of financial discrepancies, poor management, and hidden related-party transactions.

It has a track-record of finding corporate wrongdoings, then publishing a report explaining the case and then placing bets against the target company, hoping to make a profit. The business uses its own money to finance its investments.

Hindenburg has exposed possible wrongdoing in at least THIRTY SIX companies since 2017. Among the many there was Nikola Corp. which was founded on ‘dozens of lies’ and Trevor Milton, the creator of Nikola, had to resign as chairman after being found guilty of securities fraud.

Hindenburg's most recent targets were Lordstown Motors and Clover Health, the online betting operator DraftKings, the geothermal power plants company Ormat Technologies, the electric car company Mullen Technologies, and a Chinese blockchain and crypto mining firm named SOS.

So you see, Anderson has no personal grudge against Adani Ji or anything against India. His firm just comes in and tries to illuminate the fraudulent problems that might be lurking under the surface of companies and industries. It then tries to make things better.

A fraudster's greatest liability is the certainty that the fraud is too clever to be detected. We all know that corruption, embezzlement, and conmen exist everywhere. But. When we see a brazen misuse of power applied to a blatant display of wealth, we need to question our inner wisdom and clarity.

We need to play our part. Perhaps we need to wait for the final judgement as the Adani group has claimed that this report is false and that it is a conspiracy to defame them before the FPO. But considering the sharp rise in the graph of Adani Ji, even a lay’woman’ like me can understand that something isn’t right. And that’s where the first ethical rule of any scam comes into focus. ‘If you see fraud and do not say fraud, you are a fraud.’

The bubbles of certainty are constantly exploding. Therefore, whenever you see a suspicious ‘bubble on the rise’, try to bring it to the notice of the world, as fast as you can. Make sure the bubble bursts before it has a chance to harm anybody. Don’t wait until it is too late. When you have the courage to do the right thing, the world takes inspiration from you.

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