US court charges Adani with fraud accusing him of paying $250 million in bribes

Updated: Nov 21st, 2024


The Eastern District of New York court on Wednesday charged conglomerate tycoon Gautam Adani, Sagar Adani, Vneet Jaain, Ranjit Gupta, Cyril Cabanes, Saurabh Agarwal, Deepak Malhotra, and Rupesh Agarwal with multiple counts of fraud and lying to investors about the scheme. 

Senior executives of an Indian renewable energy company, an American company, and a Canadian investor were involved in a bribery scheme. They bribed Indian government officials to secure solar energy supply contracts and misrepresented their anti-bribery practices to investors. As per the court document, they also obstructed a US government investigation into the scheme.

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

Adani discussed the bribery plan with officials in person, prosecutors reportedly said.

"Between 2020 and 2024, senior executives of (i) an Indian renewable-energy company, which was a portfolio company of an Indian conglomerate; (ii) an issuer company that operated in the renewable-energy sector whose securities were traded on a United States exchange," the court document stated.

" The issuer's largest shareholder, a Canadian institutional investor, participated in a scheme to bribe Indian government officials to ensure the execution of lucrative solar energy supply contracts with Indian government entities," it added.

"During the same period, senior executives of the Indian renewable-energy company conspired to misrepresent the company's anti-bribery practices to United States-based investors and international financial institutions," the document stated.

The court said that the company concealed from those same investors and institutions their bribery of Indian government officials to obtain billions of dollars in financing for green energy projects, including the corrupt solar energy supply contracts. In addition, senior executives of the issuer company and its Canadian institutional investor conspired to obstruct the United States government's investigations into the bribery scheme.


Also read:

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