Gautam Adani, the chair of Indian conglomerate Adani Group and one of the world’s richest people, has been indicted in New York over an alleged multibillion-dollar fraud scheme, United States prosecutors have said.
The authorities on Wednesday charged Adani and two other executives at Adani Green Energy, his nephew Sagar Adani and Vneet Jaain, with agreeing between 2020 and 2024 to pay more than $250m in bribes to Indian government officials to obtain solar energy supply contracts expected to yield $2bn in profits.
Prosecutors said the renewable energy company also raised more than $3bn in loans and bonds during this period based on false and misleading statements.
Five other people were hit with related criminal conspiracy charges, including two executives of another renewable energy company, and three employees of a Canadian institutional investor.
The Adani Group denied the charges on Thursday.
“The allegations made by the US Department of Justice and the US Securities and Exchange Commission against directors of Adani Green are baseless and denied,” the conglomerate said in a statement, adding that “all possible legal recourse will be sought.”
Adani Group companies lost about $27bn in market value on Thursday, and Adani Green Energy cancelled a $600m bond sale.
The flagship Adani Enterprises closed down 23 percent in its worst one-day drop since February last year.
Several other firms in the conglomerate, such as Adani Ports, Adani Total Gas, Adani Green, Adani Power, and Adani Energy Solutions, also fell between 7 percent and 19 percent.
According to court records, a judge has issued arrest warrants for Gautam Adani and Sagar Adani, and prosecutors plan to hand those warrants to foreign law enforcement.
The case involves alleged violations of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, a US anti-bribery law.
Seven of the eight defendants are Indian citizens and lived in India, while the eighth, Cyril Cabanes, is a dual French Australian citizen who lived in Singapore, prosecutors said.
The US Securities and Exchange Commission filed related civil charges against Gautam Adani, Sagar Adani and Cabanes, 50, an executive at Azure Power Global. Prosecutors identified Cabanes as one of the Canadian investor’s employees.
Gautam Adani is worth $69.8bn, according to Forbes magazine, making him the world’s 22nd richest and India’s second-richest person.
‘Elaborate scheme’
“The defendants orchestrated an elaborate scheme to bribe Indian government officials to secure contracts worth billions of dollars,” US Attorney Breon Peace said in a statement, adding that Gautam Adani, Sagar Adani and Jaain “lied about the bribery scheme as they sought to raise capital from US and international investors”.
“These offenses were allegedly committed by senior executives and directors to obtain and finance massive state energy supply contracts through corruption and fraud at the expense of US investors,” added Deputy Assistant Attorney General Lisa H Miller.
On several occasions, Gautam Adani personally met with an Indian government official to advance the bribery scheme, and the defendants held in-person meetings with each other to discuss aspects of its execution, the prosecutors alleged.
According to the indictment, some conspirators referred privately to Gautam Adami with the code names “Numero Uno” and “The Big Man”, while Sagar Adani allegedly used his cellphone to track specifics about the alleged bribes.
In January last year, US-based short-seller Hindenburg Research accused Adani and his companies of stock market manipulation and fraud, allegations denied by the group. India’s top court ruled in favour of the group a year later.
On Thursday, India’s opposition Congress party called for a parliamentary investigation into alleged wrongdoing by the Adani Group.
Congress leader Rahul Gandhi accused Prime Minister Narendra Modi of “protecting” Adani.
“We demand that Adani be immediately arrested. But we know that won’t happen as Modi is protecting him,” Gandhi told a news conference in the capital, New Delhi.
Last week, Gautam Adani said in a post on social media platform X that his conglomerate planned to invest $10bn in US energy security and infrastructure projects, creating a potential 15,000 jobs, without providing a timetable.
He announced the investment while congratulating US President-elect Donald Trump on his election win.
Trump has pledged to make it easier for energy companies to drill on federal land and build new pipelines.
The $32bn (in revenues) Adani Group has interests in ports, airports, power generation and transmission, and green energy, among other businesses.
