Gautam Adani, his nephew Sagar Adani and six others indicted for allegedly offering $265 million in bribes to Indian government officials for securing “lucrative solar energy supply contracts” with state electricity distribution companies …reports Asian Lite News
US prosecutors in New York indicted Adani Group Chairman Gautam S Adani, his nephew Sagar Adani and six others on Wednesday for allegedly offering Rs 2,029 crore ($265 million) in bribes to Indian government officials for securing “lucrative solar energy supply contracts” with state electricity distribution companies.
“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,” a press release issued by the US Attorney’s Office, Eastern District of New York, said quoting US Deputy Assistant Attorney General Lisa H Miller.
The other six defendants named are: i) Vneet Jaain, who is the CEO of Adani Green Energy Ltd, ii) Ranjit Gupta (who was CEO of Azure Power Global Ltd between 2019 and 2022), iii) Rupesh Agarwal, who also worked with Azure Power (between 2022 and 2023); iv, v, vi) Cyril Cabanes, a citizen of Australia and France, Saurabh Agarwal and Deepak Malhotra, all three who worked with a Canadian institutional investor.
An Adani Group spokesperson said the group would soon issue a statement. Sources in the Adani Group said the charges in the indictment are allegations and the defendants are presumed innocent unless proven guilty.
In a parallel move, the Securities and Exchange Commission Wednesday charged Gautam Adani and Sagar Adani, executives of Adani Green Energy Ltd., and Cyril Cabanes, an executive of Azure Power Global Ltd., with conduct arising out of a massive bribery scheme. SEC filed both the complaints in the US District Court for the Eastern District of New York.
In their indictment, the US prosecutors have anonymised the names of all entities and some individuals but noted in the footnote that their identities are known to the Grand Jury. Gautam Adani is named but is described as the Founder of an Indian Conglomerate, which is a diversified, multinational organisation with corporate offices in India. Sagar Adani (Executive Director of Adani Green Energy) is described as the Executive Director of an “Indian Energy Company” which is a publicly-listed renewable energy company in the Conglomerate’s portfolio. Ranjit Gupta, who was the CEO of Azure Power, and Rupesh Agarwal who was the Chief Strategy and Commercial Officer of Azure Power, are described with the same designations working for an “US Issuer”.
Explaining what it called the “corrupt solar project”, the prosecutors said the “Indian Energy Company” and the “US Issuer” won awards to supply 8 gigawatts and 4 gigawatts of solar power at a fixed rate to state-owned Solar Energy Corporation of India. But since SECI could not find any state electricity distribution companies to purchase this power, it could not enter into corresponding power purchase agreements with Adani Group and Azure Power.
As a result, in or about 2020, the defendants Gautam S Adani, Sagar R Adani, Vneet S Jaain, Ranjit Gupta and Co-Conspirator #2, among others, devised a scheme to offer, authorise, make and promise to make bribe payments to Indian government officials in exchange for the government officials causing state electricity distribution companies to enter into power supply agreements with SECI,” it said. Co-Conspirator #2 is one of the two conspirators who once worked with the “US Issuer” and “undertook extensive efforts to corruptly persuade government officials”.
Referring to a high-ranking government official of Andhra Pradesh as “Foreign Official #1”, it said “Rs 1,750 crore (approximately $228 million) of the corrupt payments was offered in exchange for… causing Andhra Pradesh’s state electricity distribution companies to agree to purchase seven gigawatts of solar power from SECI (state-owned Solar Energy Corporation of India) under the Manufacturing Linked Project.”
Gautam Adani, the indictment said, had personally met “Foreign Official #1” to advance the execution of a power supply agreement between SECI and Andhra Pradesh’s state electricity distribution companies thrice during August-November 2021.
Referring to communications about the bribery scheme between the defendants and conspirators, the indictment says, Gautam S Adani was referred to in code name as “SAG,” “Mr[.] A,” “Numero uno” and “the big man”, and Jaain as “V,” “snake” and “Numero uno minus one.”
Cong demands JPC probe
Reacting to the indictment and the SEC move, Congress leader and General Secretary in-charge of communications, Jairam Ramesh, said, “The indictment of Gautam Adani and others by the SEC vindicates the demand that the Congress has been making since Jan 2023 for a JPC investigation into the various Modani scams.”
Adani shares down by up to 20%
Shares of Adani group companies plummeted by up to 20 per cent after the indictment. Adani Green Energy plunged by 18.76 per cent, Adani Energy Solutions by 20 per cent, Adani Enterprises by 10 per cent, Adani Power by 13.98 per cent and Adani Ports by 10 per cent in the morning session. Adani shares dragged the benchmark Sensex by 0.85 per cent, or 655 points, to 76,922.56 and the NSE Nifty fell by 198 points to 23,319.95 on selling pressure.
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