Billionaire Gautam Adani, one of the world's richest people, has seen his net worth fall over $80 billion this year alone
- Gautam Adani's net worth tumbled over $80 billion since the start of 2023, according to Bloomberg.
- He's now the 30th richest person in the world, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.
Gautam Adani's fortunes are plummeting this year after the US-based short-seller Hindenburg Research accused his enterprise Adani Group of fraud.
Adani's net worth is now just shy of $40 billion, according to the latest tally on Monday on the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, and is down more than $80 billion this year. He started the year with a net worth of $121 billion, according to the Bloomberg index, marking this a nearly 67% loss in net worth. Forbes previously reported that Adani had been the third-richest person in the world in January.
He was also unseated as the world's wealthiest Asian person, Forbes reported on February 1, by Reliance Industries tycoon Mukesh Ambani.
In late January, Hindenburg published a report accusing Adani's company of engaging in "a brazen stock manipulation and accounting fraud scheme over the course of decades."
Adani Group denied the allegations, with its chief financial officer Jugeshinder Singh saying in a statement at the time that the report contained "selective misinformation and stale, baseless and discredited allegations that have been tested and rejected by India's highest courts."
Adani Group did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment on Monday, sent outside of regular business hours in India.
The Hindenburg report has nonetheless led to a rapid decline in Adani's wealth on paper, with his net worth sinking by more than $5 billion in just one day after the report was released. In the course of about a week of trading after that, his worth declined $52 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.
Other billionaires to lose large amounts in relatively short spans of time including the disgraced former CEO of the fallen crypto exchange, Sam Bankman-Fried, once worth $26 billion, according to Bloomberg. Bankman-Fried has now been shut out of his company while it's in bankruptcy, and is in home detention while awaiting trial.
Twitter chief Elon Musk lost some $200 billion in net worth last year, becoming the first to do so, as shares of his other company Tesla fell, according to Bloomberg. Musk is still ranked in second place among the world's richest people, with a net worth of $180 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.