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Indian billionaire Gautam Adani has been charged by federal prosecutors in New York over an alleged years-long scheme to bribe Indian officials in exchange for billions of dollars’ worth of solar power contracts and concealing such payments from US banks and investors.
The tycoon, who has been a supporter of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, was indicted in Brooklyn on charges including securities fraud and conspiracy alongside seven other business executives, including his nephew Sagar Adani.
The indictments threaten to reignite a public relations crisis for Adani Group, the conglomerate he chairs, which has spent much of last year trying to move past the damaging claims of accounting fraud and stock market manipulation made by US short seller Hindenburg Research.
Breon Peace, the US attorney for the Eastern District of New York, said that “defendants orchestrated an elaborate scheme to bribe Indian government officials to secure contracts worth billions of dollars” and “lied about the bribery scheme as they sought to raise capital from US and international investors”.
In a parallel civil lawsuit, the Securities and Exchange Commission said the alleged bribes were paid in order to “secure [the Indian government’s] commitment to purchase energy at above-market rates that would benefit Adani Green and Azure Power”.
Adani Green raised $175mn from US investors while the scheme was ongoing, US regulators said, while Azure Power was trading on the New York Stock Exchange.
Gautam Adani and Sagar Adani allegedly “induced US investors to buy Adani Green bonds through an offering process that misrepresented not only that Adani Green had a robust anti-bribery compliance programme but also that the company’s senior management had not and would not pay or promise to pay bribes”, said Sanjay Wadhwa, acting director at the SEC’s enforcement division.
An Adani spokesman did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
This is a developing story