Adani Group Chairperson Gautam Adani. File photo
| Photo Credit: PTI
A U.S. court has indicted Gautam Adani, his nephew Sagar Adani and six others on charges of duping investors and bribery.
Gautam Adani U.S. indictment LIVE updates – November 21, 2024
What happened?
Gautam Adani, one of the world’s richest individuals, has been indicted by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on charges of deceiving investors by concealing that his company’s major solar energy project on the subcontinent was being facilitated through an alleged bribery scheme.
What are the allegations?
Prosecutors claim that Adani and his co-defendants orchestrated a bribery scheme starting in 2020 or 2021. The goal was to help renewable energy companies, Adani Green and Azure Power, secure a multi-billion-dollar solar energy project awarded by the Indian government. The complaint accuses them of violating federal securities antifraud provisions and seeks permanent injunctions, civil penalties, and bans from serving as officers or directors.
The U.S. court document said Mr. Adani won contracts in state-owned power generation companies of Chhattisgarh, Tamil Nadu, Jammu & Kashmir, Odisha and Andhra Pradesh.
The U.S. court noted that Sagar Adani “tracked specific details of the bribes offered”, including the state or region for which government officials had been offered a bribe, the total amount of the offered bribe, and approximate amount of solar power the state or region would agree to purchase in exchange for the bribe.
The documents also claim that the Adanis falsified records to secure billions of dollars in investments from U.S. stock markets.
The U.S. SEC said the Adani group misled investors by falsely asserting that Adani Green Energy maintained a robust anti-bribery compliance programme.
Who are others charged?
The U.S. Court has indicted seven others along with Gautam Adani. They include Adani’s nephew Sagar Adani, former executives Vineet Jain, Ranjit Gupta and Rupesh Agarwal.
Cyril Cabanes, Saurabh Agarwal and Deepak Malhotra, former employees of a Canadian institutional investor, have been charged with conspiracy to violate the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act.
What about the other company charged: Azure Power?
Azure Power is a Gurugram based renewable energy firm, which, according to the U.S. SEC, agreed to pay bribes to Indian officials for solar power contracts. It’s Director Cyril Cabanes, also indicted, was also the representative of Canada’s pension fund CDPQ. The firm had terminated him in 2023.
The fallout
Adani Green Energy cancelled its plans on Thursday (November 21, 2024) to raise $600 million through U.S. dollar-denominated bonds, according to four sources with direct knowledge of the situation. The bond had already been priced but was withdrawn following the news.
Shares of Adani Group companies lost about $28 billion in market value in morning trade with shares of flagship company Adani Enterprises tumbling down to 23%, while Adani Ports, Adani Total Gas , Adani Green, Adani Power, Adani Wilmar and Adani Energy Solutions, ACC , Ambuja Cements and NDTV falling between 20% and 90%.
Published – November 21, 2024 12:32 pm IST
