NEW YORK: The leading Indian businessman Gautam Adani is facing criminal fraud charges in the US for allegedly orchestrating a $250m (£198m) bribery scheme to secure lucrative renewable energy contracts in his home country.
Adani, an ally of Indian prime minister Narendra Modi, has faced fraud allegations previously as well but denied any wrongdoing.
The opposition parties in India have demanded immediate arrest of Gautam Adani and directors in his company for the economic fraud and bribery of government officials. Congress leader Rahul Gandhi LoP has said that Adani had committed a fraud of Rs.2000 crore. He said that Adani is promoted by Prime Minister Narender Modi.
Prosecutors in USA claim that Adani and seven other executives bribed Indian government officials, concealed the scheme and made false anti-corruption statements to raise $3bn (£2.4bn) from US and international investors. The investigation, which started in 2022, accuses Mr Adani of obstructing inquiries and directly advancing the scheme.
“As alleged, the defendants orchestrated an elaborate scheme to bribe Indian government officials to secure contracts worth billions of dollars and Gautam S Adani, Sagar R Adani and Vneet S Jaain lied about the bribery scheme as they sought to raise capital from US and international investors, ” US attorney Breon Peace said.
Federal prosecutors in Brooklyn, New York, unsealed the indictment of five counts on Wednesday, accusing Mr Adani and his associates of orchestrating the scheme to secure lucrative solar energy contracts in India.
The contracts, obtained between 2020 and 2024, are expected to generate over $2bn (£1.58bn) in profit.
The other defendants named by US prosecutors are Ranjit Gupta and Rupesh Agarwal, former executives of a renewable energy firm listed in the US, and Cyril Cabanes, Saurabh Agarwal and Deepak Malhotra, employees of a Canadian institutional investor.
They are accused of conspiring to obstruct investigations by a grand jury, the FBI and the US Securities and Exchange Commission by destroying evidence, withholding information during an internal inquiry, and falsely denying involvement in the bribery scheme during meetings with US authorities.
“On several occasions, Gautam S Adani personally met with an Indian government official to advance the bribery scheme and the defendants held in-person meetings with each other to discuss aspects of its execution. The defendants frequently discussed their efforts in furtherance of the bribery scheme, including through an electronic messaging application, ” the US Attorney’s Office, Eastern District of New York said in a statement.
It said the defendants meticulously documented the bribery scheme. For example, Sagar Adani, 30, used his phone to log details of bribes offered to officials. Mr Jaain, 53, photographed documents summarising bribe amounts owed. Rupesh Agarwal created and shared analyses via PowerPoint and Excel, outlining strategies to pay and conceal the bribes, the prosecutors alleged.