Adani suffers major blow, charged in US with bribery, fraud

NEW YORK: Billionaire and Adani Group Chairman Gautam Adani has been charged with bribery by a New York court. He was accused of paying more than $250 million (Rs 2,100 crore) in bribes to Indian officials to get solar power contracts. Adani is alleged to have offered bribes to acquire solar power contracts that were expected to yield more than $2 billion over twenty years. Adani has been charged with bribery, fraud, and conspiracy.

The indictment was filed by the US Attorney's Office in New York. The indictment also stated that Adani and his associates had defrauded American investors to acquire loans and bonds.

According to the U.S. Attorney's Office, Eastern District of New York, "A five-count criminal indictment was unsealed in federal court charging Gautam Adani, Sagar R. Adani, and Vneet S Jaain, with conspiracies to commit securities and wire fraud and substantive securities fraud for their roles in a multi-billion-dollar scheme to obtain funds from U.S. investors and global financial institutions on the basis of false and misleading statements."

The US Securities and Exchange Commission has also charged Adani Green Energy with bribery and filed a civil suit. In addition to this, reports are coming out quoting FBI Assistant Director James Dennehy that Adani and his accomplices tried to obstruct the investigation in the matter.

Last year, Adani Group had suffered a massive setback following the revelations made by Hindenburg Research. The new crisis emerged while the Adani Group was recovering from it. In January 2023, the Hindenburg report came out with allegations that the Adani Group tried to inflate its stake through paper companies. Later, in 2024, another report came out alleging that Madhabi Puri Buch, the current chairperson of the Securities and Exchange Board of India, who is investigating the case related to Adani in India, has investments in Adani's paper companies. However, Adani Group dismissed the claims made by Hindenburg Research by stating that they were baseless allegations.