That's a German Minister With Rahul Gandhi, Not Hindenburg's Chief
Gandhi can be seen with Niels Annen, a German minister.
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An image of Congress leader Rahul Gandhi with a man, who is being identified as the founder of Hindenburg Research Nathan Anderson, is being shared on social media.
What's the claim?: The claim furthers the narrative that Gandhi was behind the Hindenburg report, which levelled allegations of money laundering and stock market market manipulation against the Adani Group.
(Archives of similar claims can be seen here and here.)
Who is with Gandhi in the image?: The photo shows Rahul Gandhi with Niels Annen, who is Germany's Parliamentary State Secretary at the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development.
What led us to the truth?: We performed a reverse image search and came across the same image uploaded by Gandhi on his official Facebook page on 22 August 2018.
The caption of the post mentioned that he met Niels Annen, Minister of State of the Federal Foreign Office of Germany.
We also found a 2018 Twitter post from Annen's official account, which carried the same viral picture.
Annen's bio specified his current position as Parliamentary State Secretary of the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development.
The caption stated that he met Gandhi in Eimsbüttel, Hamburg.
Annen who is a German minister had met Gandhi in August 2018.
(Source: Twitter/Screenshot)
Congress' official account on Twitter had also shared the same photo with Annen in 2018.
Reports about Gandhi meeting Annen: Several reports from 2018 also carried this viral image.
An article by Hindustan Times stated that then Congress President Rahul Gandhi visited Germany and met Niels Annen during his four-day tour of Germany and the United Kingdom.
Rahul Gandhi met Niels Annen on 22 August 2018.
(Source: HT/Screenshot)
NDTV and The Times of India also reported about the duo meeting in Germany.
A visual comparison between Niels Annen and Nathan Anderson has been shown below. Anderson goes by the name Nate on Twitter.
Conclusion: A German minister has been misidentified as Nathan Anderson, the founder of Hindenburg Research in a picture with Congress leader Rahul Gandhi.
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