Police this week launched a wide-ranging raid on Adler Real Estate in Germany, coordinating activities at more than a dozen properties in multiple countries.
Police raided 20 offices and apartments on Wednesday amid searches, Reuters reported. report. Adler Real Estate, a Berlin-based principal residential owner and a subsidiary of the Adler Group, said it was cooperating with the investigation into false accounting, market manipulation and breach of trust, prosecutors said.
Frankfurt police said the attacks took place in Germany, Austria, the Netherlands, Portugal, Monaco, Luxembourg and the United Kingdom. A law firm was also searched in the 175-person raid.
Prosecutors allege that past and current Adler Real Estate board members allegedly falsified balance sheets or supported such activities between 2018 and 2020. They are also alleged to have fabricated deals to boost project prices and boost loan-to-value ratios.
An Adler Group spokesman said no board members were currently under investigation.
Another target of the raid was real estate tycoon Cevdet Caner, Bloomberg report. The investor’s homes in London and Monaco were searched, according to his lawyer, who said Khanna was willing to cooperate with the investigation.
A whistleblower raised concerns that Khanna might be involved in allegedly illegal activities, and he was dragged into the investigation. Prosecutors are investigating the 2019 sale of a property to a company controlled by Caner’s brother-in-law; the deal was ultimately reversed after regulators found the price was overvalued by as much as $242 million when translated into dollars at current exchange rates.
Adler has been under investigation for his accounting practices since 2021. That year, short sellers accused the company of artificially inflating its balance sheet. KPMG declined to provide the Adler Group with an audit certificate for the company’s 2021 financial statements.
Adler is seeking to sell assets after creditors agreed to restructure the company’s $6.6 billion in debt.
— holden walter warner
