The Indian billionaire, who is close to Prime Minister Modi, pledged to bribe Indian government officials with over $250 million in order to obtain contracts for solar energy.
As part of a multibillion-dollar fraud scheme, Indian billionaire Gautam Adani and other Adani Group executives were charged with wire and securities fraud and indicted in New York. Adani and seven other top company executives “promised more than $250 million in bribes to Indian government officials to secure solar energy contracts for Adani Green Energy,” according to the U.S. attorney’s office for the Eastern District of New York. The U.S. attorney’s office further stated that the renewable energy company, which is controlled by the Adani Group, “tried to raise money from U.S. and international investors with a 2021 bond offering based on false and misleading statements about the firm’s anti-corruption and anti-bribery efforts.”
The Washington Post reported that the purported bribery scheme, which allegedly occurred between 2020 and 2024, was “expected to generate $2 billion in profits for Adani’s company over a two-decade period.”
Adani, his nephew Sagar Adani, and business executive Vneet Jaain were charged with substantive securities fraud and conspiracy to commit wire fraud. For trying to hide the unlawful activities and their knowledge of the crimes from investigators, four of Adani’s business associates—Cyril Cabanes, Saurabh Agarwal, Deepak Malhotra, and Rupesh Agarwal—were charged with conspiracy to obstruct justice.
The complaint alleges that Gautam and Sagar Adani participated in the bribery scheme during Adani Green’s September 2021 note offering, which raised $750 million, including roughly $175 million from U.S. investors. At the same time, Gautam, Sagar Adani, and Jaain allegedly plotted to hide the Bribery Scheme from U.S. investors and foreign financial institutions and to misrepresent the Indian Energy Company’s anti-bribery and corruption policies in order to secure financing, including financing those solar energy supply contracts that were obtained through bribery.
The defendants, Cyril Cabanes, Saurabh Agarwal, Deepak Malhotra, and Rupesh Agarwal, are charged with destroying evidence and attempting to deceive federal investigators investigating corruption in Adani. They decided to remove all electronic correspondence, emails, and bribery analyses that were connected to the bribery scheme. They also prompted the Board of Directors of the U.S. Issuer to launch an internal probe into the bribery scheme and then omitted important details from that probe. They later lied to FBI, DOJ, and SEC officials during meetings in Brooklyn, New York, about their involvement in the bribery scheme. They are all accused of conspiring to obstruct justice for their actions.
In a related civil case, the Securities and Exchange Commission claims that Adani Green Energy raised over $175 million from American investors. A member of Adani’s team was accused of conspiring to break the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, which forbids American businesses from bribing foreign officials.
Adani briefly held the second-richest position in the world after being the richest man in Asia. Adani and his businesses were charged by Hindenburg Research with stock market manipulation and financial fraud last year. Using shell companies connected to his family members, the company, which looks into businesses to find possible deficiencies or misconduct and then shorts their stocks, claimed that Adani had manipulated the share prices of his companies. The Adani Group has refuted any misconduct. A year after the Hindenburg report, the company’s shares saw a significant recovery after the Indian Supreme Court decided in favor of the group.
Adani’s close relationship with Prime Minister Narendra Modi has also drawn criticism and scrutiny. This relationship has reportedly helped Adani’s business secure profitable contracts, according to reports from the New York Times and the Washington Post. “In some cases, the government has changed bidding rules to help the company gain control of airports,” according to earlier reports from Scroll.
The New York Times reports that Adani has “rejected claims of special treatment,” claiming that the groundwork for his company was established in the 1980s, long before Modi was the country’s leader, when the Indian government loosened trade restrictions.
