Gautam Adani indicted in the US

Indian billionaire Gautam Adani, alongside seven other executives, has been indicted in the US for alleged crimes related to bribes promised to Indian government officials to secure solar energy supply contracts.

US justice department officials said the chairman of the Adani Group and India’s largest private port operator APSEZ, his nephew Sagar Adani, and several other executives of a renewable energy company also deceived US investors and international financial institutions when they made false representations about their company’s anti-bribery practices.

According to the indictment, the accused paid more than $250m in bribes to Indian government officials between 2020 and 2024 to secure solar energy contracts projected to generate over $2bn in profits across two decades.

The issue concerns Adani Green Energy and another company’s deal to supply 12 GW of solar power to the Indian government. According to US prosecutors, Adani and his co-defendants fabricated records to get billions of dollars in Wall Street investments while simultaneously orchestrating a bribery scheme.

US attorney Breon Peace said in a statement that the defendants lied about their activities in India while trying to secure funding from US investors and investors in other countries.

Adani, his nephew, and company executive Vneet Jaain were charged with conspiracy to conduct wire and securities fraud, as well as substantive securities fraud. The alleged scheme involved direct engagement by Gautam Adani, who reportedly met with Indian officials to push the bribery plot.

The indictment also charges Ranjit Gupta and Rupesh Agarwal, former executives of a renewable-energy company with securities that had traded on the New York Stock Exchange, and Cyril Cabanes, Saurabh Agarwal and Deepak Malhotra, former employees of a Canadian institutional investor, with conspiracy to obstruct justice for attempting to conceal the illegal activities and their knowledge of crimes from investigators.

A New York judge has issued arrest warrants for Gautam and Sagar Adani, with prosecutors seeking international law enforcement assistance. The indictment comes as Gautam Adani faces increased scrutiny following a wave of other fraud claims that reduced the worth of formerly Asia’s richest man’s enterprises, drastically depleting his wealth.