NEW YORK: Gautam Adani, the billionaire chairman of India’s Adani Group and one of the world’s richest people, has been indicted in New York for his role in an alleged multi-billion-dollar bribery and fraud scheme, US prosecutors said on Wednesday.
Authorities said Adani and seven other defendants, including his nephew Sagar Adani, agreed to pay about $265 million in bribes to Indian government officials to obtain contracts expected to generate $2 billion in profits over 20 years and to develop India’s largest solar power plant project. .
Prosecutors also said the Adanis and another Adani Green Energy executive, former CEO Vneet Jaain, raised more than $3 billion in loans and bonds by hiding their corruption from lenders and investors.
According to the indictment, some of the conspirators privately referred to Gautam Adani by the code names “Numero Uno” and “Big Man,” while Sagar Adani allegedly used his mobile phone to track details about the bribes.
The Adani Group did not immediately respond to requests for comment outside business hours in India, where the charges were announced early Thursday morning.
The Indian Embassy in Washington did not immediately respond to requests for comment, and the identity of the defendants’ lawyers could not immediately be identified.
Gautam Adani, Sagar Adani and Jain were charged with securities fraud, securities fraud conspiracy, and wire fraud conspiracy, and Adani was also charged in a US Securities and Exchange Commission civil case.
The five other defendants were charged with conspiracy to violate the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, a US anti-bribery law, and four of them were charged with conspiracy to obstruct justice.
A spokesman for US Attorney Breon Pace in Brooklyn said that none of the defendants had been detained. Gautam Adani is believed to be in India.
The empire was built
According to Forbes, 62-year-old Adani is worth $69.8 billion and is one of the few billionaires formally charged in the United States with criminal wrongdoing.
His wealth makes him the 22nd richest person in the world, and the second richest person in India behind Reliance Industries Chairman Mukesh Ambani. Forbes He said.
Adani grew up in the Indian state of Gujarat and left school at the age of sixteen.
He founded the Adani Group in 1988 as a commodities trading company and built a business empire that included airports, shipping ports, power generation, power transmission and mining companies.
The charges were announced hours after Adani on Wednesday raised $600 million by selling 20-year “green” bonds.
It also came almost two years after US short-selling firm Hindenburg Research accused Adani Group of improperly using offshore tax havens, which the company denied.
The January 2023 Hindenburg report sparked a nearly $150 billion collapse in Adani Group shares.
Adani Planned Investments, congratulated Trump
Others criminally charged on Wednesday include Ranjit Gupta and Rupesh Agarwal, respectively, the former CEO, former chief strategy officer and chief commercial officer of Azure Power Global, who authorities said agreed to pay some of the bribes.
The remaining criminal defendants worked for the Caisse de Depot et Placement du Quebec, a Canadian institutional investor, and included Cyril Cabaniss, who was also a director of Azure. He has also been accused of wrongdoing by the Securities and Exchange Commission.
Prosecutors said all the defendants are Indian citizens except Cabaniss, a dual French-Australian citizen who lives in Singapore.
According to court records, the judge issued arrest warrants for Gautam Adani and Sagar Adani, and prosecutors plan to turn those warrants over to foreign law enforcement authorities.
Last week, Gautam Adani posted on the social media platform
Adani announced the investment while also congratulating US President-elect Donald Trump on his election victory.
Trump pledged to make it easier for energy companies to drill on federal lands and build new pipelines.
Political opponents have accused Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, also from Gujarat, of protecting Adani and his companies, including from Hindenburg’s accusations. Modi dismissed the opposition’s allegations as “lies and violations.”