Billionaire Gautam Adani charged in US with USD 250 mn bribery, fraud

Gautam Adani. Pic/AFP

Billionaire Gautam Adani has been charged by US prosecutors over his role in an alleged years-long scheme to pay USD 250 million bribe to Indian officials in exchange for favourable terms for solar power contracts, reported news agency PTI.

US prosecutors charged Adani, 62, his nephew Sagar and other defendants for paying over USD 250 million in bribes between 2020 and 2024 to Indian government officials to win solar energy contracts on terms that could potentially bring in more than USD 2 billion in profit, reported PTI.

This, they alleged, was concealed from the US banks and investors from whom the Adani group raised billions of dollars for the project, reported PTI.

US law allows pursuing foreign corruption allegations if they involve certain links to American investors or markets.

The Adani group did not immediately respond to requests for comments.

"The defendants orchestrated an elaborate scheme to bribe Indian government officials to secure contracts worth billions of dollars," Breon Peace, US Attorney for the Eastern District of New York, which brought the case, said in a statement, reported PTI.

Billionaire Gautam Adani, chairman of the ports-to-energy Adani Group, his nephew Sagar R Adani, who is an executive director at the conglomerate's renewable energy arm Adani Green Energy Ltd, and its former CEO Vneet Jaain were charged with securities fraud, securities fraud conspiracy and wire fraud conspiracy. The Adanis were also charged in a US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) civil case, reported PTI.

The five-count indictment also accuses Sagar and Jaain of breaking federal laws.

The US authorities also charged three former employees of a large Canadian pension fund, CDPQ, in connection with the alleged scheme, saying they obstructed an investigation into the bribes by deleting emails and agreeing to provide false information to the US government.

CDPQ, which invests in infrastructure projects, is a shareholder in Adani companies.

The indictment may throw the conglomerate again in a turmoil just as it rebounded from US short seller Hindenburg Reseach's damning fraud allegations.

Hindenburg allegations of "brazen stock manipulation and accounting fraud" in January 2023 had led to the conglomerate seeing USD 150 billion wipeout in market value at its lowest point. The group stocks have since recovered most of the losses, reported PTI.

Adani Group had denied all allegations made by Hindenburg.

A school dropout, Billionaire Gautam Adani founded his namesake group in 1988 as a commodities trading firm, and built a business empire that now spans airports, shipping ports, power generation, energy transmission and mining companies.

"Specifically, on or about March 17, 2023, FBI special agents approached Sagar Adani in the United States and pursuant to a judicially authorised search warrant, took custody of electronic devices in his possession," the court document said.

Some conspirators, according to the documents, referred privately to Gautam Adani with the code names "Numero uno" and "the big man," while his nephew allegedly used his cellphone to track specifics about the bribes, reported PTI.

"On or about March 18, 2023, the defendant Gautam S Adani emailed himself photographs of each page of the search warrant executed and grand jury subpoena served on the defendant Sagar R Adani," it said, reported PTI.

Others who were criminally charged include Ranjit Gupta and Rupesh Agarwal, respectively a former CEO and former chief strategy and commercial officer of Azure Power Global, which authorities said agreed to pay some of the bribes, reported PTI.

The complaint charges them with violating the antifraud provisions of the federal securities laws and seeks permanent injunctions, civil penalties, and officer and director bars.

During the alleged scheme, Adani Green raised more than USD 175 million from US investors and Azure Power's stock was traded on the New York Stock Exchange, the SEC said in a statement, reported PTI.

Simultaneously, the US Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of New York unsealed criminal charges against Adani and Sagar Adani, Cyril Cabanes, and others linked to Adani Green and Azure Power.

The federal indictment unsealed in a federal court in Brooklyn charges five others with conspiracy to violate the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act in connection with the bribery scheme, involving one of the world's largest solar energy projects.

(With inputs from PTI)