On Monday, a report brought out by Hindenburg Research claimed that the Adani Group is pulling off the largest fraud in corporate history.

The report said that, after a 2-year investigation, the "research" agency believes that Adani Group has engaged in a brazen stock manipulation and accounting fraud scheme over the course of decades. It accuses Gautam Adani of amassing a net worth of roughly $120 billion largely through stock price appreciation in the group’s seven key listed companies. Over $100 billion has been added in the past 3 years by the company.

But why should the report be believed at all in the first place? "Even if you ignore the findings of our investigation and take the financials of Adani Group at face value, its seven key listed companies have 85% downside purely on a fundamental basis, owing to sky-high valuations," Hindenburg Research says.

The fallout of the report has already been felt. Live Mint reported that the seven Adani Group stocks lost Rs 46,086 crore in market cap today.