The second-richest person in India, Gautam Adani, has been charged with fraud by U.S. authorities on charges that he and a number of accused co-conspirators attempted to bribe Indian officials with $250 million.
The executives, the majority of whom are Indian, were charged by the U.S. attorney’s office in Brooklyn, New York, on Wednesday with obtaining money from U.S. investors and other foreign lenders “on the basis of false and misleading statements.” Authorities also claim that the executives bribed Indian officials in order to secure billions of dollars in solar power contracts.
In a press statement that accompanied the indictment, U.S. Attorney Breon Peace stated, “The defendants planned a complex scheme to bribe Indian government officials to secure contracts worth billions of dollars.” Then, in an effort to obtain money from both domestic and foreign investors, the defendants “lied about the bribery scheme,” according to Peace.
Prosecutors said the scam took place between 2020 and this year.
Adani’s nephew, Sagar Adani, is also included as a defendant. Charges of civil fraud were separately issued by the Securities and Exchange Commission on Wednesday.
According to Forbes, Gautam Adani, 62, is worth over $70 billion. He is the head of the Adani Group, an industrial conglomerate that has shares in energy and logistics companies. The indictment, which alludes to an unidentified “Indian renewable-energy company” that was “a portfolio company of an Indian conglomerate,” does not specifically mention Adani Group.
Meanwhile, Adani Green Energy Ltd., a division of the Adani Group, is specifically named in the SEC lawsuit. Adani Group refuted the claims in a statement on Thursday, describing them as “baseless.”
“Across all jurisdictions of its operations, the Adani Group has consistently upheld and remains resolutely committed to maintaining the highest standards of governance, transparency, and regulatory compliance,” a spokeswoman said in a statement. “We reassure our partners, stakeholders, and staff that we are a law-abiding company that complies with all applicable laws.”
According to CNBC, the announcement caused shares of Adani Group firms to plummet in India on Thursday. Adani Energy had a 20% decline, while its flagship Adani Enterprises saw a 23% decline. The business at the heart of the bribery accusations, Adani Green Energy, had an 18.95% decline.
Plans to offer $600 million in bonds denominated in US dollars were also halted by Adani Green Energy. Adani has been charged by India’s opposition party with taking advantage of his close relationship with Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
“We are aware that no government agency will assist in placing Mr. Adani in his proper place,” Indian National Congress leader Rahul Gandhi stated on Thursday. “The prime minister controls the entire government, so we know that.”
Using claimed inconsistencies in its official records, a well-known U.S. short-seller—a corporation that wagers on the price of another company’s shares to drop—accused Adani Group of fraud last year.
Adani Group shares fell after the short-seller Hindenburg Research’s conclusions, but they eventually rose after the Indian Supreme Court issued a favorable decision regarding the claims. Modi never addressed the Hindenburg accusations in public.
In an emailed statement on Wednesday, Hindenburg stated, “We have never wavered in our view since releasing our January 2023 report identifying Adani as the largest corporate con in history, nor has Adani ever refuted our findings.”
