Gautam Adani, the billionaire chairman of the Indian conglomerate Adani Group and one of the richest people in the world, was accused in New York on Wednesday by U.S. prosecutors for allegedly participating in a multibillion-dollar bribery and fraud scheme.
The chairman of the Adani Group in India, Gautam Adani, and seven other people have been indicted in the United States in connection with a $2 billion fraud and bribery scam. The group allegedly paid $265 million in bribes to Indian officials in order to land lucrative solar energy contracts that were predicted to bring in billions of dollars, according to the prosecution.
In private, some conspirators referred to Gautam Adani by code names such “Numero Uno” and “The Big Man,” the indictment claims, while Sagar Adani allegedly tracked particular bribe-related data using his mobile.
Prosecutors further claimed that by hiding corruption from investors and lenders, Gautam Adani and Vineet Jain, another Adani Green Energy executive, secured more than $3 billion in loans and bonds for the business. Alleged infractions of the U.S. anti-bribery law, the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, are at issue in this case.
Requests for response outside of business hours in India, where the charges were revealed on Thursday morning, were not immediately answered by the Adani Group. Requests for response from India’s embassy in Washington were also not immediately answered. It was not immediately possible to identify the defendants’ solicitors.
With a net worth of $69.8 billion, 62-year-old Gautam Adani is the second richest person in India and the 22nd richest person in the world, after Reliance Industries chairman Mukesh Ambani, according to Forbes magazine. Additional defendants include Cyril Cabañas, a director of Azure Power Global, and former CEO and Chief Strategy and Commercial Officers Rupesh Agarwal and Ranjit Gupta, respectively.
Along with other defendants, Cabañas was employed by a Canadian institutional investor, according to the prosecution. They also disclosed that Cabañas, a dual French-Australian citizen residing in Singapore, and seven of the accused are Indian citizens who lived in India during the relevant period.
A judge has issued arrest warrants for Gautam Adani and Sagar Adani, according to court documents, and prosecutors want to send these warrants to international law enforcement.
Additionally, related civil accusations have been brought against Gautam Adani, Sagar Adani, and Cabañas by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).
After a prior attempt that was delayed due to investor concerns, the Adani Group obtained $600 million through an oversubscribed U.S. bond sale just hours before the indictment.
Gautam Adani has suffered yet another major setback in this issue. In January 2023, Hindenburg Research accused him of manipulating stocks and abusing tax havens. The market capitalisation of the Adani Group was devalued by $150 billion as a result of that research; the business has refuted these claims.
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