In a stunning development, US federal prosecutors have charged Indian billionaire Gautam Adani in an alleged multi-billion-dollar fraud scheme.
Adani, chairman of the Adani Group, and two executives at Adani Green Energy – his nephew Sagar Adani and Vneet Jaain – have been accused of agreeing to pay over $250 million in bribes to Indian government officials to win “lucrative solar energy supply contracts”.
“The defendants orchestrated an elaborate scheme to bribe Indian government officials to secure contracts worth billions of dollars,” Breon Peace, the US Attorney for the Eastern District of New York, said in a statement.
There was no immediate comment from the Adani Group on the charges. But in previous statements in response to questions about the company’s conduct, the conglomerate has said it operates “with the highest standards of governance” and is “fully compliant with anti-corruption and anti-bribery laws in India and other countries”.
The five-count indictment, unsealed in a New York courtroom late on Wednesday, is the latest bombshell to hit Adani’s sprawling empire. In early 2023, US short-seller Hindenburg Research sent the group’s shares plunging when it issued a report accusing the conglomerate of “brazen stock manipulation and accounting fraud”.
The group, whose shares have largely recovered their losses following the Hindenburg report, strenuously denied the allegations as “baseless.”
Adani is the second richest person in Asia, with an estimated net worth of $85.5 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index on Wednesday.
The energy projects were expected to return profits of $2 billion, according to the indictment.
Adani Green, which aims to become the leading world's top renewable energy firm, also made false and misleading statements about the company’s compliance with anti-bribery and anti-corruption practices to collect over $3 billion in loans and bonds from investors, the indictment alleges.
In addition, five other people have been indicted on related criminal conspiracy charges. They include two ex-executives of another renewable energy company, Azure Power Global, and three former employees of the Canadian institutional investor Caisse de Depot et Placement du Quebec.
Those employees have been charged with conspiracy to violate the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act in connection with the alleged bribery scheme by Adani and the others at Adani Green Energy.
Under US law, federal prosecutors can probe foreign corruption allegations if they involve links to US investors or markets.
