“Less than two weeks back, we faced a set of allegations from the US about compliance practices at Adani Green Energy. This is not the first time we have faced such challenges. What I can tell you is that every attack makes us stronger and every obstacle becomes a stepping stone for a more resilient Adani Group,” said Adani in Jaipur.
Centre responds to charges:
“The fact is that despite a lot of the vested reporting, no one from the Adani side has been charged with any violation of the FCPA or any conspiracy to obstruct justice. Yet, in today’s world, negativity spreads faster than facts — and as we work through the legal process, I want to re-confirm our absolute commitment to world class regulatory compliance,” added the billionaire.
The US authorities accused Adani, 62, his nephew and executive director Sagar Adani and managing director of Adani Green, Vneet S. Jaain, of being part of a scheme to pay bribes of $265 million to secure Indian solar power supply contracts, and misleading investors during fund raises there.
The ports-to-power conglomerate has previously denied the charges as “baseless” and vowed to seek “all possible legal recourse”.
India’s foreign ministry, in the country’s first official reaction to Adani’s indictment, said on Friday that bribery allegations against the billionaire was a legal issue between private companies and the U.S. Department of Justice and that New Delhi has not received any request on this case from Washington.
What were the charges?
Gautam Adani, the billionaire chair of conglomerate Adani Group and one of the world’s richest people, has been indicted in New York over his role in an alleged multibillion-dollar bribery and fraud scheme, U.S. prosecutors said few weeks back. Authorities said Adani and seven other defendants, including his nephew Sagar Adani, agreed to pay about $265 million in bribes to Indian government officials to obtain contracts expected to yield $2 billion of profit over 20 years, and develop India’s largest solar power plant project.
Prosecutors also said the Adanis and another executive at Adani Green Energy, former CEO Vneet Jaain, raised more than $3 billion in loans and bonds by hiding their corruption from lenders and investors.
According to an indictment, some conspirators referred privately to Gautam Adani with the code names “Numero uno” and “the big man,” while Sagar Adani allegedly used his cellphone to track specifics about the bribes. The other five defendants were charged with conspiring to violate the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, a U.S. anti-bribery law, and four were charged with conspiring to obstruct justice.
Others who were criminally charged on Wednesday include Ranjit Gupta and Rupesh Agarwal, respectively a former CEO and former chief strategy and commercial officer of Azure Power Global, which authorities said agreed to pay some of the bribes.
The remaining criminal defendants worked for Caisse de Depot et Placement du Quebec, a Canadian institutional investor, and included Cyril Cabanes, who was also an Azure director. He was also charged with wrongdoing by the SEC.
All of the defendants are Indian citizens apart from Cabanes, a dual French-Australian citizen who has lived in Singapore, prosecutors said.
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.
Winter Parliament session faces disruptions over Adani:
Ealier this week, Parliament commenced the winter session but neither Rajya Sabha nor Lok Sabha could function amid ruckus by the opposition parties demanding discussion on Adani bribery charges. On the opening day of the winter session, Rajya Sabha Chairman Jagdeep Dhankar announced that discussions regarding Gautam Adani’s indictment will not be permitted in the Upper House.
The first session of the winter Parliament commenced on November 25, with both Houses getting adjourned fairly early due to disruptions. The winter session will go on till December 20.
However, within a week after the US leveled explosive allegations against Gautam Adani over his alleged involvement in a bribery scheme, public support for the Indian billionaire has started to gain momentum. The shift began on Wednesday when an Adani Group unit released a statement asserting that early reports about the indictment were misleading. The company’s primary defense highlighted that its executives were facing charges related to securities and wire fraud, but no allegations of bribery or foreign corruption have been made against them.
