Gautam Adani, 13 other directors and 4 companies settled for this first
SEBI could not prove the Adani public shareholding charge
SEBI's final order of 28 September 2026 found it could not prove that 4 Adani companies broke the minimum public shareholding rule. A listed company must keep at least 25% of its shares with the public.
The charge was that 2 foreign funds, Emerging India Focus Funds and EM Resurgent Fund, and Opal Investments were really controlled by Vinod Adani and the promoters. If so, their shares should have counted as promoter holdings, not public ones.
SEBI found no proof of that control. The fraud charge fell with it, and so did the ₹1,984 crore of wrongful gains the notice had alleged. That figure was never a fine.
2 people were still fined ₹20 lakh each, Nasser Ali Shaban Ahli and Chang Chung-Ling, for giving SEBI wrong or incomplete information.
The twist is that Gautam Adani, 13 other directors and the 4 companies had already settled for ₹1.48 crore, paid on 26 August 2026, without admitting or denying anything. SEBI let that settlement close first, then ruled the charge was not proved!