User:Smallbones/drafts

"Largest con in corporate history"?

Blurb: Gautam Adani and his companies appear to have edited a series of related articles, employing at least 60 sockpuppets and infiltrating Articles for creation reviewers.

Indian industrialist Gautam Adani has lost a lot of money over the last month. His net worth is about $67 billion less (as of 2/13/23)) than what it was on January 24 when Bloomberg estimated it at $119 billion and the publicly traded companies he controls have lost over $100 billion in market value. He was ranked as the third richest person in the world in late January and is now only ranked as the 24th with a net worth of $52.4 billion (as of 2/13/23)). Please note that all these numbers are in billions, not millions.

What happened? On January 24 short-seller Hindenburg Research released a report titled Adani Group: How the World’s 3rd Richest Man Is Pulling the Largest Con In Corporate History, The text of the report modified the claim slightly to "one of, if not the most egregious example of corporate fraud in history". It accused Adani’s companies of "brazen accounting fraud, stock manipulation and money laundering ... taking place over the course of decades." The market value of the 10 publicly-traded companies Adani controls plunged to about half of its previous level within a few days and has stayed at that level or decreased since.

Billionaires have a history of apparent undeclared paid editing on Wikipedia, including Kenneth C. Griffin (paywall), Robert T. Brockman, Robert F. Smith and several Russian oligarchs. A few near- or former-billionaires including Elizabeth Holmes, Greg Lindberg, Jeffrey Epstein, and Peter Nygard have also appeared to hire people for undeclared paid editing.

This report examines Adani and his companies, as well as Hindenburg Research, in much the same way we examined those other billionaires: have they used paid editing on Wikipedia to push their points-of-view or as an aid in their pursuit of money?

We remind our readers that no entirely on-Wiki investigation of a user’s edits can completely identify an editor’s name or employer. Even if the editor identifies themself as an employee of a company, they may be simply trying to embarrass the company, a practice known as Joe jobbing. We can, however, examine the nearly complete record of edits made to Wikipedia and identify editors that are likely to be sockpuppets, or that appear to be working together with other accounts.

Adani edits to Wikipedia

Edit summary for an edit by an Adani employee via an Adani IP address

So did Adani or his employees improperly edit Wikipedia? Almost certainly yes.

Due to Wikipedia’s account name regulations, administrators blocked User:Adanigrouponline in May 2013, and User:Adani Group in September 2014. These were single purpose accounts (SPAs) editing Adani related articles, including a complete rewrite of the Adani Group article which removed a conflict-of-interest notice from the top of the article. They also added a detailed list of business units, and - the paid editors' favorite section - a list of awards. But they kept a section which an unregistered user - an admitted Adani employee - had added earlier.

Adani Vision

Our vision is to be the globally admired leader in integrated infrastructure businesses with a deep commitment to nation building. We shall be known for our scale of ambition, speed of execution and quality of operation.

Adani Values

Courage

We shall embrace new ideas and businesses

Trust

We shall believe in our employees and other stakeholders

Commitment

We shall stand by our promises and adhere to high standards of business

The unregistered user left an edit comment of "(Revisited & updated all the content, Changes by Satyam Trivedi (Corporate Communication, Adani))" and the IP address is identified by Whois as Adani Enterprise Limited. A conflict-of-interest notice was added to the top of the article three minutes after this edit, but was soon removed by Adanigrouponline.

Other strong evidence revealed by The Signpost's investigation shows that about 60 editors who have edited Adani articles have later been blocked for undeclared paid editing (UPE) or sockpuppeting, or by the were blocked by checkusers, whose blocks are typically related to sockpuppeting or UPE. We'll start by reviewing the sockpuppets who edited articles on Adani family members.

Gautam Adani

Gautam Adani

The article on Gautam Adani was started in 2007 in a straightforward modest style by a respected editor. But by 2012 three editors who were later blocked or banned as sockpuppets or undeclared paid editors had edited the article, including User:Kkm010 who has edited three other Adani-related articles together with three other socks from the same sockfarm.

User:Similar2me one of the leading editors of the article edited the article 18 times from 2018 through 2020 when he was blocked for socking. He added two large early edits that rewrote much of the article. After that they concentrated a bit on the philanthropy section, made a few reverts, removed a warning tag, and generally just updated the article. User:Liberosist666, who is suspected to be from the same sockfarm, also made an edit. Similar2me and his sockfarm also edited the articles on Pranav Adani, Gautam's nephew, and on the Adani Group, Adani Green Energy, and Adani Ports & SEZ.

User:Hatchens who only made three edits to Gautam Adani also edited the articles on Pranav Adani and Karan Adani, Gautam's son, as well as Adani Group, Adani Enterpises, Adani Green Energy, and Adani Transmission, until he was blocked in 2022 for a "general pattern (that) seems to have been to accept AfC (Articles for Creation) drafts written by other UPEs. Maybe also some direct paid edits to articles."

User:UncleScrooze, another blocked editor who edited this article also edited Adani Group, Adani Ports & SEZ, and Karan Adani. Other socks who edited this and other Adani-related articles include User:Bernice2019 (2 other articles) and User:Blazin777 (3 other articles).

In total 25 socks edited this article.

Priti Adani

Priti Adani in a photo uploaded by User:Mainakchatterjee.tech

The article on Priti Adani, the wife of Gautam and the chairperson of the Adani Foundation, was created as a draft article on March 8, 2021 and moved to mainspace as a regular article 30 minutes later by User:Sallauddin786. They are not a blocked sockpuppet, but are a special purpose account (SPA) specializing in the Adani Foundation and Priti Adani and related articles such as Adani Transmission (which they created).

Last September a warning tag for UPE and COI editing was added to the top of the article resulting in a testy exchange on the talk page. User:Mainakchatterjee.tech was accused of UPE for adding a photo to the article which he had uploaded to Commons. Mainakchatterjee.tech owns a digital marketing service according to his user page. Both the warning tag and the accused editor remain on Wikipedia.

The only blocked socks to have edited the article are Bernice2019 and Blazin777.

Karan Adani

Karan Adani in a photo uploaded by Mainakchatterjee.tech

Pranav Adani

The article about Pranav Adani, Gautam's nephew, was created in November 2018 by Similar2me. Two weeks later another sock, User:Venomous Sniper, who didn't seem to be representing the Adani family or firms - added a "multiple issues" tag at the top of the article, warning readers of a possible autobiography, BLP violations, and a non-encyclopedic essay-style format.

Similar2me and one of his sockpuppets, User:Danceofdeath666, made seven more edits over the following seven months. Then Hatchens, the user who was banned for abusing his position as an AFC reviewer, made a dozen edits the following year

In 2021 a UPE warning tag was added to the top of the article with an explanation posted on the talk page by a sockpuppet investigations clerk. Similar2me and their sockfarm had been blocked. Since then the only blocked socks to have edited the article are Bernice2019 and Blazin777.

Only those six socks appear to have edited this article.