A New York judge has issued arrest warrants for Indian billionaire Gautam Adani, his nephew Sagar Adani, and others involved in an alleged multibillion-dollar bribery and fraud scheme. The warrants will be handed over to foreign law enforcement agencies, Reuters reported.
The US Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of New York announced the charges against Gautam Adani, 62, Sagar Adani, 30, and six others on Wednesday, November 20. They are accused of orchestrating a $265 million (approximately Rs 2,236 crore) bribery scheme to secure solar energy supply contracts from the Indian government. These contracts were projected to generate profits of nearly $2 billion (Rs 16,880 crore) over two decades.
The charges alleges that following the promise of bribes to Indian government officials between July 2021 and February 2022, state electricity distribution companies for the states of Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Odisha, Chhattisgarh and Jammu and Kashmir entered into power supply agreement with Solar Energy Corporation of India (SECI) – a public sector undertaking, that acts, among other things, as an intermediary for power procurement – under the Manufactured Linked Project. Of this, Andhra Pradesh agreed to purchase seven gigawatts of solar power.
Out of the total amount of Rs 2,029 crore offered as bribes, Rs 1,750 crore was 'offered' to a high ranking official of Andhra Pradesh who was in power from May 2019 to June 2024. The charges also states that Gautam Adani personally met with this officer (called Foreign Official #1 in AP) and offered Rs 1,750 crore in exchange for the official getting AP's state electricity distribution companies to agree to purchase the seven gigawatts of power from SECI.
Prosecutors allege that Gautam Adani, chair of the Adani Group, and other executives, including Vneet S Jaain, a former Adani Green Energy executive, raised over $3 billion (Rs 25,322 crore) through loans and bonds while concealing their corrupt practices from investors and lenders.
Authorities alleged that the bribery scheme, spanning from 2020 to 2024, was well documented. This evidence included a phone used to meticulously track details of the bribes, a photograph of a document summarising various bribe amounts, and PowerPoint and Excel files analysing different methods for making and concealing bribe payments, the statement revealed.
“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 Reuters report said.
According to the Department of Justice, the defendants frequently met to discuss the bribery scheme, with evidence found on multiple cell phones.
Gautam Adani, Sagar Adani, and Vneet Jaain face charges of securities fraud, conspiracy to commit securities fraud, and wire fraud conspiracy.
In light of the developments, Adani group has issued a statement informing that their subsidiaries have presently decided not to proceed with the proposed USD denominated bond offerings.