On Wednesday, Gautam Adani, chair of the Adani Group from India and one of the world’s richest people, was accused of a massive bribery and fraud scheme along with seven other men in a New York federal court.
Adani and other defendants are charged with bribing Indian government officials with at least $250 million for solar energy supply contracts that could generate over $2 billion in profits.
The Indian billionaire, along with executives from Adani Green Energy Limited – his nephew Sagar Adani and Vneet Jaain, were indicted for misleading US and international investors about the company’s adherence to anti-bribery and anti-corruption practices, as they amassed over $3 billion in capital to finance the energy contracts.
In addition, the three defendants were also indicted with securities fraud conspiracy, wire fraud conspiracy, and securities fraud.
The charges from Brooklyn federal court were also extended to two former executives in Azure Power Global, a renewable energy company, Ranjit Gupta and Rupesh Agarwal as well as Cyril Cabanes, Saurabh Agarwal, and Deepak Malhotra, three former employees of Caisse de Dépôt et Placement du Québec, a Canadian institutional investor.
The eight men are facing accusations of conspiracy to infringe the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, all in connection to the alleged bribery scheme orchestrated by Adani and others at the energy firm.
On top of that, the indictment also accuses Cyril Cabanes, Saurabh Agarwal, Malhotra, and Rupesh Agarwal of conspiring to hinder federal criminal and Securities and Exchange Commission investigations into the alleged bribery scheme.
Meanwhile, even though the accused illicit activity central to the indictment happened in India, the defendants are being tried in Brooklyn federal court. This is due to the alleged actions linked to the bribery scheme and efforts to raise capital that took place in the Eastern District of New York.
The indicted crime involved alleged false or omission from a statement of material fact related to a bond issuance designed to raise capital for the solar energy contracts.
According to prosecutors, all but one of the defendants live in India, while Cabanes is a resident of France and Australia.
The SEC filed civil complaints against Gautam Adani, Sagar Adani, and Cyril Cabanes, an executive at Azure Power Global. These filings are related to alleged bribery actions that allowed Adani Green Energy and Azure to benefit from solar energy contracts granted by the Indian government.
The SEC pointed out that throughout the alleged scheme, Adani Green raised over $175 million from US investors, and Azure’s shares were traded on the New York Stock Exchange.
