Gautam Adani, chairman of Indian conglomerate Adani Group, speaks at the Vibrant Gujarat Global Summit 2024 in Gandhinagar, Gujarat, India on January 10, 2024.
Puneet Paranipet | AFP | Getty Images
Gautam Adani, chairman of India’s Adani Group and one of the world’s richest men, was indicted along with others in New York federal court on charges related to a massive bribery and fraud scheme, authorities said Wednesday.
Adani and other defendants are accused in the indictment of paying more than $250 million in bribes to Indian government officials to secure solar supply contracts worth more than $2 billion in profits.
The 62-year-old billionaire and two executives of Adani Green Energy Ltd, his nephews Sagar Adani and Vneet Jaain, were accused of Misled U.S. and international investors about its company’s anti-bribery and anti-corruption practices when raising more than $3 billion in capital.
Adanis and Jain were each charged with conspiracy to commit securities fraud, conspiracy to commit wire fraud and securities fraud.
The five-count indictment filed in U.S. District Court in Brooklyn also charges Ranjit Gupta and Rupesh Agarwal, former executives of renewable energy company Azure Power Global, as well as the Three former employees of Canadian Institutional Investors Caisse de dépôt etiquette du Québec: Cyril Cabanes, Saurabh Agarwal and Deepak Malhotra.
On January 12, 2024, in Kafuda, India, a worker walked through rows of solar panels at the Kafuda Renewable Energy Park owned by the Adani Group.
Puneet Paranipet | AFP | Getty Images
The defendants are accused of conspiring to violate the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act in connection with a bribery scheme involving Adani and others at the energy company.
Kabaneese, Saurabh Agarwal, Malhotra and Rupesh Agarwal are also charged with conspiring to obstruct the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission’s investigation into the bribery scheme.
Although the criminal activity alleged in the indictment occurred in India, the defendants were charged in Brooklyn federal court for conduct related to bribery schemes and financing activities that allegedly occurred in the Eastern District of New York.
The conduct included alleged misrepresentations of material facts or omissions in connection with bond offerings to raise funds for solar contracts.
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on Wednesday filed a civil complaint against Gautam Adani and Sagar Adani and Azure Power Global executive Cabanes for allegedly paying bribes to make Adani Adani Green Energy and Azure were able to take advantage of solar contracts awarded by the Indian government.
The SEC complaint alleges that as part of the alleged scheme, Adani Green raised more than $175 million from U.S. investors, with Azure stock trading on the New York Stock Exchange.
“Gautam and Sagar Adani orchestrated a bribery scheme that involved paying or promising to pay bribes equivalent to hundreds of millions of dollars to Indian government officials to secure their commitment to purchase energy at above-market prices that would enable Adani Green and Azure Power benefited,” the SEC said.
“Cabanes allegedly assisted in authorizing bribes in the United States and abroad to advance the scheme,” the agency said.
Gautam Adani is Asia’s second richest man, with a reported net worth of $85 billion.
In early 2023, short selling the company cost him tens of billions of dollars in personal wealth. Hindenburg Research Center published a report accusing the Adani Group of “engaging in a brazen stock manipulation and accounting fraud scheme spanning decades”.
The Hindenburg report called it “the greatest scam in corporate history.”
Adani issued a 413-page response to Hindenburg, calling the accusations baseless.
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