Adani Ports' CEO and CFO paid ₹13.65 lakh each to close SEBI's PMC Projects case

In January 2023, short-seller Hindenburg Research accused the Adani Group of share-price manipulation through offshore structures, and flagged PMC Projects (India) Private Limited as an undisclosed related party whose dealings with listed Adani companies should have faced shareholder scrutiny. The group denied the allegations, and SEBI opened a slate of probes — eventually reported at 24 — including one into banking transactions and inter-corporate security deposits among PMC Projects, Adani Ports and Special Economic Zone Ltd and the port operator's subsidiaries.

By November 2023, SEBI's show-cause notice had narrowed to named individuals: Karan Adani, APSEZ's chief executive, and B Ravi, its chief financial officer, were alleged to have violated Regulation 17(8) of the listing regulations — the provision requiring the CEO and CFO to certify prescribed matters to the board. Within two months, through law firm Cyril Amarchand Mangaldas, the two executives applied to settle rather than contest.

The arithmetic of Indian settlement then ran its course: SEBI's Internal Committee met the lawyers in May and July 2024, the High-Powered Advisory Committee recommended ₹13,65,000 from each man in June 2026, a panel of Whole Time Members approved on August 13, and the money was remitted on September 5. The settlement order of September 10, 2026 closed the adjudication with neither executive admitting or denying the findings — and with SEBI expressly reserving the right to restore the proceedings if any representation made in the settlement proves untrue.

₹13.65 lakh each for the CEO and former CFO to settle without admitting guilt — ₹27.3 lakh total, three years after the show-cause notice

Regulation 17(8) puts the CEO and CFO personally on the hook for certifying matters to the board — the disclosure chain runs through named humans, not just the listed company.

Banking transactions and inter-corporate deposits with an outside associate are where related-party-shaped exposure slips past routine certification — each leg looks like treasury business.

Public allegations by a short-seller turned an accounting question into a formal probe of India's largest port operator, ensuring the transactions would be examined transaction by transaction.

The executives chose settlement over litigation, buying certainty and personal closure at ₹13.65 lakh each while the group's blanket denial of the underlying allegations stayed formally intact.

When a certification duty names individuals, transactions an auditor would wave through can land personally on the CEO and CFO — and settling buys closure far cheaper than fighting.

The September 10, 2026 settlement order disposed of the adjudication against both men and reserved SEBI's right under Regulation 28 to restore proceedings if any settlement representation proves untrue. It was one of 24 Hindenburg-spawned examinations; the group has consistently denied the allegations. For Adani Ports the episode closed at about $14,355 per executive — a price that still left the underlying question of PMC Projects' related-party status unanswered by any adjudicated finding.