US prosecutors have accused Gautam Adani and others of an elaborate scheme to bribe Indian government officials to secure contracts worth billions of dollars as they sought to raise funds from US investors.
Gautam Adani, the chair of Indian conglomerate Adani Group and one of the world’s richest people, has been indicted in New York over an alleged multibillion-dollar fraud scheme, United States prosecutors have said.
On Wednesday authorities charged Adani and two other executives at Adani Green Energy, his nephew Sagar Adani and Vneet Jaain, with agreeing between 2020 and 2024 to pay more than $250m in bribes to Indian government officials to obtain solar energy supply contracts expected to yield $2bn in profits.
Prosecutors said the renewable energy company also raised more than $3bn in loans and bonds during this period based on false and misleading statements.
Five other people were hit with related criminal conspiracy charges, including two executives of another renewable energy company, and three employees of a Canadian institutional investor.
Adani Group did not immediately respond to requests for comment outside business hours in India, where the charges were announced early Thursday morning.
India’s embassy in Washington did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
According to court records, a judge has issued arrest warrants for Gautam Adani and Sagar Adani, and prosecutors plan to hand those warrants to foreign law enforcement.
The case involves alleged violations of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, a US anti-bribery law.
Seven of the eight defendants are Indian citizens and lived in India, while the eighth, Cyril Cabanes, is a dual French-Australian citizen who lived in Singapore, prosecutors said.
The US Securities and Exchange Commission filed related civil charges against Gautam Adani, Sagar Adani and Cabanes, 50, an executive at Azure Power Global. Prosecutors identified Cabanes as one of the Canadian investor’s employees.
Gautam Adani is worth $69.8bn, according to Forbes magazine, making him the world’s 22nd richest and India’s second richest person.
‘Elaborate scheme’
“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 in a statement.
“These offenses 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 US investors,” added Deputy Assistant Attorney General Lisa H Miller.
On several occasions, Gautam 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 prosecutors alleged.
According to the indictment, some conspirators referred privately to Gautam Adami with the code names “Numero uno” and “the big man,” while Sagar Adani allegedly used his cellphone to track specifics about the bribes.
The charges were announced hours after Adani on Wednesday raised $600m from a sale of 20-year “green” bonds.
Last week, Gautam Adani said in a post on social media platform X that his conglomerate planned to invest $10bn in US energy security and infrastructure projects, creating a potential 15,000 jobs, without providing a timetable.
Adani announced the investment while also congratulating US President-elect Donald Trump on his election win.
Trump has pledged to make it easier for energy companies to drill on federal land and build new pipelines.
The $32bn (revenues) Adani Group has interests in ports, airports, power generation and transmission, and green energy, among other businesses. Last year in January, US-based short-seller Hindenburg Research accused Adani and his companies of stock market manipulation and fraud, allegations denied by the group. India’s top court ruled in favour of the group a year later.