U.S. authorities have charged Adani Group chairman Gautam Adani and his key executives in a multi-billion-dollar scheme involving bribery of Indian officials to secure power supply contracts. The case has sparked stormy scenes in Parliament. A report by Mudit MathurUnlike the earlier shelved short-seller Hindenburg allegations, US prosecutors in New York have now indicted Adani Group Chairman Gautam Adani, his nephew Sagar R. Adani, and six others on charges of orchestrating a scheme involving over $250 million in bribes to state government officials to secure power supply contracts in India. The Adani Group now faces two cases: a civil case filed by the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and a criminal case by the US Department of Justice (DOJ).
In the federal court in Brooklyn, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of New York has charged Gautam S. Adani, the multi-billionaire chairman of the Adani conglomerate, and others from an Indian renewable energy company (the Indian Energy Company) with conspiracies to commit securities and wire fraud, as well as substantive securities fraud, for their roles in a multi-billion-dollar scheme to secure funds from U.S. investors and global financial institutions through false and misleading statements.
This revelation has sent shockwaves across India, coming at a time when Prime Minister Narendra Modi recently secured a hard-fought victory in the Maharashtra assembly elections. Opposition parties had already criticised Modi for his alleged closeness to Gautam Adani, and the US indictment has intensified their attacks. The timing of the charges, ahead of the winter session of Parliament, led to repeated adjournments in both the Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha, with opposition MPs demanding discussions on the matter.
Both Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha witnessed stormy scenes, uproar, and frequent disruptions since the beginning of the winter session as Opposition MPs defied the presiding officers’ appeals to allow the normal functioning of the Houses. Opposition MPs raised slogans demanding discussions on the criminal indictment of Adani Group Chairman Gautam Adani and seven others for allegedly orchestrating a scheme to pay over $250 million in bribes to state government officials to secure power supply contracts in India. The opposition MPs rushed to the Well of the House, prompting frequent adjournments of parliamentary business.
A five-count criminal indictment was unsealed on 20 November by the U.S. Attorney’s Office in the Federal Court in Brooklyn, charging Gautam S. Adani, Sagar R. Adani, and Vneet S. Jaain, executives of an Indian renewable-energy company (the Indian Energy Company), with conspiracies to commit securities and wire fraud, as well as substantive securities fraud, for their roles in a multi-billion-dollar scheme to obtain funds from U.S. investors and global financial institutions through false and misleading statements.
