Indian billionaire, Gautam Adani has been indicted in New York over an alleged multibillion-dollar fraud scheme, United States prosecutors have said.
On Wednesday, November 20, 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.
The Adani Group denied the charges on Thursday.
“The allegations made by the US Department of Justice and the US Securities and Exchange Commission against directors of Adani Green are baseless and denied,” the conglomerate said in a statement, adding that “all possible legal recourse will be sought.”
In the wake of the US indictments, shares of Adani Group companies lost about $28bn in market value in morning trading on Thursday, and Adani Green Energy cancelled a $600m bond sale.
Shares in Adani Green Energy plunged 17 percent and stocks for several other firms in the conglomerate lost more than 10 percent.
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.
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