The viral image does not show Rahul Gandhi with Hindenburg Research’s founder Nathan Anderson.

The person in the viral image with Rahul Gandhi is German politician Niels Annen, not Hindenburg Research’s founder Nathan Anderson.

Hindenburg Research, a New York-based short-selling firm, published a report recently accusing Asia’s then-richest man, Gautam Adani, of stock manipulation and accounting fraud. Adani’s market cap was reduced by $100 billion as a result of the report, and the company was also forced to withdraw its Follow-on Public Offer (FPO).

In this scenario, an image of Congress leader Rahul Gandhi with a person who is being identified as the founder of Hindenburg Research Nathan Anderson, is being shared on social media. The claim furthers the narrative that Gandhi was behind the Hindenburg report.

“The caption of the viral post states, “The relation with whites is centuries and generations old..! This Pappu is standing with the crown prince of Congress, Mr. Hindenburg’s chief is ‘Nathan Anderson’ the price of brokerage will definitely have to be paid. Now you have to explain something or understand Adani Khel.

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Fact Check- 

A reverse image search of the image led us to an NDTV report from 23 August; 2018. According to the report Gandhi visited Germany as part of his diaspora outreach program ahead of the 2019 Lok Sabha Elections. It was then that he met Minister of State Niels Annen where they discussed about the Kerala floods that took place in july-August 2018. Niels Annen is serving in Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s government as the Parliamentary State Secretary at the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development since 2021.

Niels Annen shared the same image on his Twitter account on 22 August, 2018.

The picture was also shared on the Indian National Congress’ official Twitter handle on 22 August, 2018.

We checked the Hindenburg Research’s website, as per its bio that the company was “founded by Nate Anderson, CFA, CAIA, specialises in forensic financial research”.Later we conducted a keyword search for Rahul Gandhi and Nathan Anderson which yielded no relevant results or photos of such a meeting.

 A visual comparison between Niels Annen and Nathan Anderson has been shown below. Anderson goes by the name Nate on Twitter.

Conclusion- 

Fact Crescendo found the claim made along with the viral image to be False. The person in the viral image with Rahul Gandhi is German politician Niels Annen, not Hindenburg Research’s founder Nathan Anderson.