Anil Aggarwal
The days of Anil Aggarwal, the richest businessman of Bihar and chairman of Vedanta Group, are not doing anything good. His group is constantly being accused. American Best Short Seller Viceroy Research has made a new allegation that the group’s semiconductor unit was associated with “Fake Commodity Business Operational”, which was designed to avoid classification as NBFC. The Vedanta Group has dismissed the allegation as baseless. The American short seller Viceroy Research published a sharp report about the Vedanta Group last week and then other similar reports on the group companies. Let us also tell you what is the whole matter.
The latest allegations stated that Vedanta Semiconductor Private Limited, a subsidiary of Vedanta Limited, was part of the plan to send brand fees to the original company Vedanta Resources in April this year, when it faced serious cash crunch. Vedanta’s spokesperson said in a statement that the group firmly dismisses the baseless allegations made in the report about the group “Vedanta Semiconductor Private Limited (VSPL). He said that all VSPL’s commercial activities have been transparently revealed and they correspond to the statutory criteria.
Short seller’s serious allegations against Vedanta
Viceroy said that VSPL is a fake commodity business operations, designed to improperly avoid classification as a non-banking financial company (NBFC). Viceroy further said that the scheme was prepared by Vedanta Limited to send the brand fee to Vedanta Resources (VRL) in April 2025, when it faced a serious cash crisis. The allegations further stated that VSPL needed 24 months of regulatory silence to fulfill its purpose… Credit analysts are sleeping amid the bell of danger, and India’s regulators are also in light sleep as usual. Vedanta Limited (VEDL) faced serious cash crisis in April 2024.
Business was on paper
The Viceroy alleged that VEDL re -activated VSPL as a semiconductor venture, but as a zero margin business unit, which appears to be a fully operated in paper -based commodity business. Viceroy alleged that VSPL contacted foreign lenders for 10 percent NCDs of short -term, Indian rupee value, who were safe from VEDL’s share (equal to one percent of outstanding shares) in NZL. After this, VSPL launched the trade of commodity (copper, silver, gold) on zero margin basis, which reminds of wash trading. Wash trading is an attempt to mislead the market by showing fake amounts of business.
Also accused
The American short-seler alleged that VSPL would probably have to continue these showy work by FY 2026-27, when the loan deadline would end and the repayment will have to be done through it only. If at any time regulators interfere in VSPL, the lender group can be completely eliminated. Vedanta’s spokesperson said in a statement that loans were executed by fully following the applied laws and corporate administration standards between VSPL and Vedanta Limited. Both Vedanta Limited and VSPL have reported consistent loan conditions, interest rates and mortgage as per the statutory criteria.