Indian billionaire Gautam Adani charged with corruption in US | Economy

Gautam Adani, president of the Indian conglomerate Adani Group and one of the world’s richest men, has been charged in New York with an alleged multimillion-dollar fraud, Brooklyn prosecutors said Wednesday.

Authorities accuse Adani and two other executives of one of the group’s units, Adani Green Energy, his nephew Sagar Adani and Vneet Jaain, of agreeing to pay more than $250 million in bribes to Indian government officials between 2020 and 2024 to obtain solar power. energy. contracts that were expected to generate $2 billion in profits. Five other people were charged with conspiracy, including two executives of another renewable energy company and three employees of a Canadian institutional investor. According to court records, the judge has issued arrest warrants for Gautam Adani and his nephew Sagar, who are awaiting surrender to the Indian police (seven of the eight accused are Indians residing in this country), as well as the French and Australians, whose eighth accused, Cyril Cabanes, has dual citizenship .

Prosecutors say the renewable energy company also obtained more than $3 billion in loans and bonds during that period through false and misleading statements. The allegations emerged in India early Thursday morning. Given the time difference, there was no reaction from the business group; nor from the Indian Embassy in Washington, which was contacted by Reuters.

“Defendants orchestrated an elaborate scheme to bribe Indian government officials to obtain billions of dollars in contracts,” Breon Peace, a Brooklyn-based attorney for the Eastern District of New York, said in a statement.

The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filed related civil charges against Gautam Adani, Sagar Adani and Cabanes, a senior executive at Azure Power Global, another group company. Prosecutors identified Cabanes as one of the Canadian investor’s employees.

According to the magazine, Gautama Adani’s net worth is $69.8 billion. Forbesmaking him the 22nd richest person in the world. Initially known as the king of coal, he diversified his interests to cover wide sectors of the Indian economy. His rise, which paralleled that of India’s Hindu nationalist Prime Minister Narendra Modi (both from Gujarat), suffered a setback in January 2023 when his fortune nearly halved in just a week after being accused of fraud and financial manipulation. The indictment from federal prosecutors in the Eastern District of New York could deal another major blow, although Adani remains hidden in the shadow of New Delhi’s powerful government chief.