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Thursday 21 Nov 2024
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The chair of Indian conglomerate Adani Group, Gautam Adani, has been indicted in the US over an alleged scheme to pay hundreds of millions of dollars in bribes and conceal the scheme from American investors. (Photo/Reuters)
The chair of Indian conglomerate Adani Group, Gautam Adani, has been indicted in the US over an alleged scheme to pay hundreds of millions of dollars in bribes and conceal the scheme from American investors, prosecutors said.
The US Attorney's Office in Brooklyn said on Wednesday that Adani, 62, along with two other executives of an Indian renewable energy company, Sagar Adani and Vneet Jaain, agreed between 2020 and 2024 to pay more than $250 million in bribes to Indian government officials to obtain solar energy supply contracts expected to yield $2 billion in profits.
"This indictment alleges schemes to pay over $250 million in bribes to Indian government officials, to lie to investors and banks to raise billions of dollars, and to obstruct justice," said Deputy Assistant Attorney General Lisa Miller.
The renewable energy company, which prosecutors did not name, also raised more than $3 billion in loans and bonds during this period on the basis of false and misleading statements, prosecutors said.
It was not immediately clear who in India's government was in touch with Adani regarding the massive payment.
Adani is perceived as being close to right-wing PM Narendra Modi. Critics and opposition politicians often accuse Adani of benefiting from his political links — claims both reject.
"Gautam Adani and seven other business executives allegedly bribed the Indian government to finance lucrative contracts designed to benefit their businesses... while still other defendants allegedly attempted to conceal the bribery conspiracy by obstructing the government's investigation," said the FBI's James Dennehy.
None of the multiple defendants in the case, including Adani, are in custody, the prosecutor's office said.
Prosecutors say one of Adani's alleged accomplices meticulously tracked bribe payments, using his phone to log the bungs offered to officials.
Adani Group did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
'Brazen stock manipulation'
Adani is a power player in the world's most populous nation. He built his fortune in the coal business coal in the 1990s.
His Adani Group grew to involve many aspects of Indian life, from making defence equipment to building roads to selling cooking oil. In recent years, Adani has made big moves into renewable energy.
A self-described introvert, Adani keeps a low profile and rarely speaks to the media, often sending lieutenants to front corporate events.
Adani was born in Ahmedabad, Gujarat state, to a middle-class family but dropped out of school at 16 and moved to financial capital Mumbai to find work in the city's lucrative gem trade.
After a short stint in his brother's plastics business, he launched the flagship family conglomerate that bears his name in 1988 by branching out into the export trade.
His big break came seven years later with a contract to build and operate a commercial shipping port in Gujarat.
Adani Group's rapid expansion into capital-intensive businesses previously raised alarms, with Fitch subsidiary and market researcher CreditSights warning in 2022 it was "deeply over-leveraged."
In 2023 a bombshell report from US investment firm Hindenburg Research claimed the conglomerate had engaged in a "brazen stock manipulation and accounting fraud scheme over the course of decades."
Hindenburg said a pattern of "government leniency towards the group" stretching back decades had left investors, journalists, citizens and politicians unwilling to challenge its conduct "for fear of reprisal."
The Adani Group called the claims "a malicious combination of selective misinformation and stale, baseless and discredited allegations."
Civil action against Adanis
Meanwhile, in a parallel civil action, the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) accused Adani and two co-defendants of violating antifraud provisions of US securities laws.
The regulator is seeking monetary penalties and other sanctions.
Sanjay Wadhwa, acting director of the SEC's Enforcement Division, said Gautam and Sagar Adani are accused of persuading investors to buy their company's bonds by misrepresenting "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."
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Source: TRT
