Senior executives at Quebec’s provincial pension fund manager tried to win contracts by paying Indian officials hundreds of millions of dollars in bribes and interfered with corruption investigations in the United States, American prosecutors allege.
Federal prosecutors in New York City have charged three former Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec executives with conspiracy to violate the U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act and conspiracy to obstruct justice for their alleged roles in a bribery scheme and attempted coverup.
The most senior of those former officials, Cyril Cabanes, who was in charge of the Caisse’s infrastructure investments in the Asia-Pacific and Middle East regions at the time of the alleged offences, has also been charged with violating the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.
“This indictment alleges schemes to pay over US$250 million in bribes to Indian government officials, to lie to investors and banks to raise billions of dollars, and to obstruct justice,” deputy assistant attorney general Lisa H. Miller said in a statement. “These offences were allegedly committed by senior executives and directors to obtain and finance massive state energy supply contracts through corruption and fraud at the expense of U.S. investors.”
Also among those charged in connection with the alleged scheme are Saurabh Agarwal, the former managing director of the Caisse’s infrastructure investments in South Asia and former managing director of CDPQ India, and Deepak Malhotra, a former director of infrastructure investments in South Asia for the Caisse.
Cabanes and Malhotra sat on the board of Azure Power Global Ltd., an Indian green energy company at the centre of the alleged bribery scheme. The Caisse bought a controlling share of the company in 2020 and Cabanes served as its representative on Azure’s board.
“CDPQ is aware of charges filed in the U.S. against certain former employees. Those employees were all terminated in 2023 and CDPQ is co-operating with U.S. authorities. In light of the pending cases, we have no further comment at this time,” the Caisse said in an emailed statement.
U.S. prosecutors have also charged Gautam Adani, widely considered to be Asia’s second-richest man, and two other executives at a Indian green energy company that is part of a conglomerate he controls with several fraud-related charges in connection with the alleged scheme.
In 2019, his company, Adani Green Energy Ltd., and Azure won contracts from the Indian national government to build a solar power production facility, according to an SEC charging document filed in a New York City federal court.
But the companies struggled to secure deals with power distribution companies owned by Indian states to buy electricity at the price set by the national government.
In order to get those power purchase agreements, “Azure and Adani Green, acting through various senior executives and officials, undertook a massive bribery scheme,” according to the SEC, allegedly paying hundreds of millions in bribes to state officials to obtain the contracts, which could generate up to US$2 billion in profits for Azure alone.
According to an indictment unsealed Wednesday afternoon, the former CEO of Azure, Ranjit Gupta, who has also been charged by U.S. prosecutors, began plotting with Adani and other executives at Adani Green to pay bribes, eventually reaching an agreement to pay one-third of the total.
As Agarwal, Malhotra and Cabanes learned of the agreement, they became willing participants, prosecutors claim.
According to the indictment, Agarwal, Malhotra and Cabanes discussed multiple strategies to transfer the bribe money, with Agarwal making a PowerPoint presentation of possibilities. Eventually, the indictment says, they settled on a plan to transfer part of the power generation contract to Adani.
At the time, Cabanes “had the authority to direct the actions of certain CDPQ personnel who reported to him — including other members of Azure’s board — as well as the actions of Azure’s executive team,” according to the SEC.
When Azure’s board chair, identified as “co-conspirator #1,” notified the three Caisse executives of an SEC investigation, they created a sham internal investigation, revealing that they had been asked for bribes, but not that they had agreed to pay them, and destroyed evidence, according to the indictment.
“This strategy was designed to create the appearance that the co-conspirators were reporting misconduct, rather than perpetuating misconduct, which, in turn, aided the co-conspirators’ continued efforts to further the ongoing bribery scheme and to conceal the true nature of the bribery scheme from the board of directors and government investigations,” the indictment reads.
While the companies aren’t named in the criminal indictment, they are named in the SEC charging document, which names the same individuals as the indictment and recounts the same facts.
U.S. authorities say they have jurisdiction because Azure shares traded on a U.S. stock exchange until the company was delisted in 2023 and because some of Cabanes’s actions took place in the U.S.
Adani Green sought to raise money from U.S. investors and misled them, in violation of U.S. law, American authorities say.
The Adani Group said in a statement that the charges are “baseless and denied” and that it plans to use all legal means to fight them. Azure’s current management said in a statement that it is co-operating with the investigation.
None of the accused have been taken into custody and all of those charged are Indian citizens who were living in India at the time of the alleged offences, except for Cabanes, an Australian and French citizen, who was living in Singapore.