Adani-owned port in Sri Lanka under scrutiny after bribery allegations by US court

One of the ports in Sri Lanka’s Colombo, partly owned by the Adani Group, is now under scrutiny amid the allegations of bribery by a US court.

Last November, the US International Development Finance Corporation (DFC) announced that it would finance the Sri Lankan port terminal project in the capital, Colombo, with $553 million. The project, which is partly owned by the Adani Group, is now under review following the bribery charges against Gautam Adani and seven others.

According to reports, a US agency stated on Sunday that it is reviewing the impact of the Department of Justice’s bribery allegations against the founder of the Adani Group on the agency’s prior agreement to lend more than $550 million to the Sri Lankan port project.

The DFC has not yet disbursed any money under the financial commitment, and US agencies are now reviewing the legality of the project.

On Wednesday, the Eastern District of New York court charged conglomerate tycoon Gautam Adani, along with several other individuals – including Sagar Adani, Vneet Jain, Ranjit Gupta, Cyril Cabanes, Saurabh Agarwal, Deepak Malhotra, and Rupesh Agarwal—with multiple counts of fraud and for lying to investors about the scheme.

Senior executives from an Indian renewable energy company, an American company, and a Canadian investor were involved in a bribery scheme.

They allegedly bribed Indian government officials to secure solar energy supply contracts and misrepresented their anti-bribery practices to investors. According to court documents, they also obstructed a US government investigation into the scheme.

The defendants are accused of paying over $250 million in bribes to Indian government officials in order to obtain solar energy contracts worth billions of dollars for Adani Green Energy, a renewable energy company majority-owned by the Adani Group.

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