Adani Group rejected charges made by US prosecutors that Gautam Adani had paid more than $250 million in bribes to secure lucrative government contracts.
Lisa H Miller, Deputy Assistant Attorney General for the Justice Department’s Criminal Division, accused Adani and his associates of bribing Indian government officials and conspiring to obtain lucrative solar energy supply contracts “through corruption and fraud at the expense of US investors”.
What is an indictment in the US legal system and what does it mean for Adani and his alleged conspirators? What is likely to happen next? We explain.
The US Department of Justice has indicted Gautam Adani, the founder of Adani Group, his nephew Sagar Adani, and other senior Adani Green executives for allegedly bribing or offering bribes to the tune of $265 million to Indian state government officials to get them to sign solar power contracts while raising money for the same projects in the US by promising that the company abided by anti-bribery laws. This constitutes fraud under US federal securities law and, if proven, may invite criminal liabilities.
In the charges unsealed on Wednesday evening Eastern time, the US attorney’s office for the Eastern District Court of New York alleged that between 2020 and 2024, senior executives of Adani Green and associated entities “conspired to misrepresent the company’s anti-bribery practices” to US investors and international financial institutions. The indictment added that Adani and others also “concealed” from the same investors their bribery of Indian government officials to obtain billions of dollars of financing for green energy projects”, including the “corrupt solar energy supply contracts” for which they were raising funds.
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