Gautam Adani: Asia’s Second-Richest Man Faces U.S. Charges Over Alleged Solar Energy Bribery Scheme

Gautam Adani, a prominent Indian businessman and one of the world’s wealthiest individuals, has been indicted in the United States on charges of misleading investors by hiding the involvement of an alleged bribery scheme tied to a major solar energy initiative in India.

The indictment, revealed on Wednesday, accuses the 62-year-old Adani of securities fraud and conspiracy to commit securities and wire fraud. The case revolves around a profitable deal involving Adani Green Energy Ltd. and another company, which aimed to deliver 12 gigawatts of solar energy to the Indian government—enough to power millions of homes and businesses.

According to the indictment, Adani and his associates played a double game. They allegedly presented the project as legitimate and transparent to investors on Wall Street, who invested billions over five years. Meanwhile, in India, they were reportedly arranging or planning to pay $265 million in bribes to government officials to secure lucrative contracts and financing.

Deputy Assistant Attorney General Lisa Miller stated that Adani and his co-defendants used corruption and deception to acquire and fund large-scale state energy contracts, doing so at the expense of U.S. investors. U.S. Attorney Breon Peace echoed this, accusing the defendants of executing a complex scheme to enrich themselves at the cost of the financial market’s integrity.

Simultaneously, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) launched a civil case against Adani and two associates, alleging they breached U.S. securities laws. The SEC is pursuing financial penalties and other sanctions. Both the criminal and civil cases were filed in Brooklyn’s federal court.

Among Adani’s co-defendants are his nephew, Sagar Adani, who serves as the executive director of Adani Green Energy’s board, and Vneet Jaain, who was the CEO of the company between 2020 and 2023 and currently holds the role of managing director on the board.

Attempts to contact Adani for comment were unsuccessful, as online court records did not indicate any legal representation for him. Efforts to reach his conglomerate, the Adani Group, and lawyers representing his co-defendants were also unfruitful. Sagar Adani’s attorney, Sean Hecker, declined to comment, while the others did not respond to inquiries.

Sanjay Wadhwa, acting director of the SEC’s Enforcement Division, noted that Gautam and Sagar Adani were accused of persuading investors to purchase bonds by falsely claiming that Adani Green had a strong anti-bribery policy and that its senior leadership had not, and would not, engage in bribery.

Gautam Adani, who initially amassed his wealth in the 1990s coal industry, has seen his conglomerate, the Adani Group, expand to cover a wide range of industries in India, from defense manufacturing to infrastructure and consumer goods. In recent years, the group has aggressively moved into renewable energy, boasting a clean energy portfolio of over 20 gigawatts, including one of the world’s largest solar plants in Tamil Nadu. The company aims to lead India’s renewable energy market by 2030, with Adani announcing a $70 billion investment in green energy projects by 2032.

However, the company has faced scrutiny. In 2022, a U.S.-based financial research firm accused Adani Group of engaging in “blatant stock manipulation” and “accounting fraud.” The group dismissed these claims as misleading and unfounded, attributing them to a combination of selective misinformation. The firm, Hindenburg Research, which operates as a short-seller betting on a decline in stock prices, had taken a position against Adani Group’s shares. The company’s stock fell significantly after these allegations and dropped again in August when Hindenburg raised further accusations of corruption.

Vneet Jaain, speaking to The Associated Press last year, claimed that Hindenburg’s charges had minimal effect on ongoing projects, including a massive solar and wind energy project in Khavda, northwest India.

Prosecutors allege that Adani and his associates began planning the bribery scheme in 2020 or 2021 to ensure that the Indian government’s Solar Energy Corporation would demand the energy that Adani Green and another company were contracted to produce. The elevated prices set by Adani’s firms were initially rejected by state-run electricity distributors, who supply power to local businesses and households. To secure the deals needed for profitability, Adani and his team allegedly resorted to bribing officials.

In 2021 and 2022, as prosecutors recount, electricity distributors in five Indian states or regions eventually agreed to purchase energy from Adani Green, following promises of bribes to officials. Around the same time, Adani publicly celebrated these agreements, calling them the “world’s largest” power purchase deal. Simultaneously, he and his associates assured global investors that Adani Green had no involvement in bribery, claims that allowed them to secure billions in financing under favorable terms that did not reflect the actual risks.

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