New Delhi– In what is now being hailed as one of the boldest corporate comebacks in history, India’s Adani Group mounted a strategic counteroffensive against Hindenburg Research, whose damning 2023 report temporarily wiped out over $150 billion of the conglomerate’s market value. This counteroffensive, dubbed Operation Zeppelin, is said to have involved a covert investigation aimed at uncovering the inner workings and backers of the U.S.-based short-seller, culminating in Hindenburg’s abrupt shutdown earlier this year.
In January 2023, Hindenburg Research released a scathing report branding the Adani Group as “the largest con in corporate history,” triggering a financial crisis for the conglomerate. The report’s release came just days before Adani Group Chairman Gautam Adani was in Israel to finalize a $1.2 billion deal to acquire the Haifa Port — a transaction viewed as strategically vital for the India-Middle East-Europe Economic Corridor. Despite the uproar caused by the allegations, the deal closed on January 31, 2023, with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu attending the signing ceremony.
As the fallout from the Hindenburg report spread, a senior Israeli leader questioned Adani about the allegations. According to insiders, Adani firmly dismissed the claims as “absolute lies.” Behind the scenes, however, the Adani Group began working on a counterstrategy that would later be known as Operation Zeppelin, reportedly involving assistance from Israeli intelligence agencies.
Named after the German airships used during World War I, Operation Zeppelin was a multi-pronged effort involving public relations, legal strategies, and covert intelligence work designed to restore investor confidence and expose Hindenburg’s networks.
Sources close to the matter suggest that Israeli officials viewed Hindenburg’s report as a deliberate attempt to sabotage the Haifa Port deal, given its strategic importance to global trade corridors. While Adani Group focused publicly on shoring up its core businesses, Operation Zeppelin quietly worked in the background.
Former intelligence operatives, lawyers, and cybersecurity experts collaborated in Ahmedabad and international capitals to map out the connections behind Hindenburg’s campaign. According to insiders, the operation uncovered a complex web involving activist lawyers, journalists, hedge funds, and political figures—some allegedly tied to Chinese interests, others to influential Washington circles.
Gautam Adani was reportedly briefed on the operation during a private visit to Switzerland in January 2024. Back in India, a high-tech control room was established with cyber analysts and legal teams coordinating with operatives on the ground in the U.S. and other regions.
By late 2024, leaked documents began to emerge, allegedly showing connections between U.S. agencies and media platforms advancing anti-Adani narratives. Around the same time, the U.S. Department of Justice and the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filed charges against key Adani executives, accusing them of participating in a bribery scheme to secure renewable energy contracts in India. The Adani Group categorically denied the allegations.
Meanwhile, Adani’s legal teams prepared to take formal action against Hindenburg Research and its founder, Nathan Anderson. A legal notice was sent, and a meeting between Adani’s legal representatives and Hindenburg officials was proposed, though it remains unclear whether such a meeting occurred.
In a surprising turn of events, on January 15, 2025, Hindenburg Research announced it was shutting down operations. The decision, just days before Donald Trump’s inauguration as the next U.S. president, caught many off guard.
Since then, evidence has surfaced in a legal case in Ontario, Canada, reportedly implicating Hindenburg Research and Anderson in potential securities fraud, undisclosed partnerships, and faulty disclosures. These revelations have further discredited the short-seller, bolstering Adani Group’s narrative that the original attack was part of a larger, coordinated effort.
The Adani Group’s ability to navigate the crisis and emerge stronger has been widely regarded as a landmark moment in corporate resilience, driven in part by the clandestine efforts of Operation Zeppelin to turn the tide against one of the most aggressive short-seller campaigns in recent history. (Source: IANS)
