Billionaire Gautam Adani Indicted by US Prosecutors for $265 Million Bribery Scheme
New Delhi: Indian billionaire Gautam Adani has been indicted by US prosecutors for conspiring with executives of a formerly New York-listed company to devise a $265 million scheme to bribe Indian officials to boost their solar energy business.
The Adani Group denied the allegations as "baseless", while Indian government officials have not commented so far on the matter. The US Department of Justice has charged Gautam Adani, his nephew Sagar Adani who is director at Adani Green, and six others with alleged bribery and fraud related to renewable energy projects in India.
According to the indictment unsealed on Wednesday, executives of Adani Green and Azure "knowingly and wilfully conspired" and agreed to "corruptly" offer, authorise and pay bribes to government officials in India to "obtain or retain business advantages". The alleged bribery scheme involved Adani and his executives making false and misleading statements to investors and lenders in the United States regarding the company's anti-bribery commitments and practices.
The investigation is believed to have started as early as 2023 when US authorities approached Adani with details of their inquiry. FBI special agents then took custody of electronic devices belonging to Sagar Adani, including his mobile phone, and served him with a search warrant and grand jury subpoena.
Adani and his group were alleged to have made millions from loans and bonds raised in the United States between 2021 and 2024, including $175 million from US investors. The indictment also claimed that they used an internal analysis at Azure to sum up the bribe payments, using a development fee option while instead transferring one of Adani’s projects to Azure.
The power projects in question were awarded by Solar Energy Corporation of India (SECI), a federal government-owned entity between 2019 and 2020. The Indian authorities are also alleged to have devised the deal to receive bribes to gain agreements with state governments that allowed Adani subsidies and companies.
Sagar Adani allegedly used his mobile phone to track details of the bribes offered to Indian officials, according to US authorities in their charge against the group. Executives from Azure in a meeting detailed this arrangement as part of steps he took in person. An option for paying was described to be repaying payments by using an internal payment route at Azure.
The US Securities and Exchange Commission said that Adani made false or misleading statements regarding his company's anti-corruption policies during the $750 million funding round in September 2021, including a $175 million raise from buyers across the U.S.
In response to the allegations, Azure stated in a recent statement that its former officers referenced by the US indictment were no longer with the firm and would continue cooperating with authorities but an official did point out all entities remain under investigation and would be subject to prosecution.