Adani under fresh scrutiny in US over Iranian oil imports

US prosecutors are investigating whether Indian billionaire Gautam Adani’s companies imported Iranian liquefied petroleum gas into India through Mundra Port in Gujarat, the Wall Street Journal reported on Monday.

The Adani Group dubbed the reports of links between any of its entities and Iranian LPG as “baseless and mischievous”. In its investigation, the WSJ said it had found tankers travelling between the Gulf and Mundra Port (operated by Adani’s firm), exhibiting traits that experts claimed were common for ships evading sanctions.

The US Justice Department is reviewing activities of several LPG tankers used to ship cargos to Adani Enterprises, the WSJ said, citing people familiar with the matter.

The Adani Group, for its part, said it did not handle any cargo coming from Iran or any Iranian-owned ship at any of its ports and denied any deliberate engagement in evasion of sanctions.

“Adani categorically denies any deliberate engagement in sanctions evasion or trade involving Iranian-origin LPG,” a company spokesman told the WSJ in a statement. “Further, we are not aware of any investigation by the US authorities on this subject,” the spokesman said.

US President Donald Trump said in May that all purchases of Iranian oil or petrochemical products must stop and any country or person buying any from the country would be immediately subject to secondary sanctions.

Any inquiry into Adani would come months after US authorities indicted Adani and his nephew, Sagar Adani, alleging they paid bribes to secure power supply contracts and misled US investors during fund-raising in the US. Adani Group had called the accusations “baseless and vowed to seek all possible legal recourse”.