Gautam Adani charged with bribery and fraud in the US

Adani, who is one of the richest people in the world, has been charged with a multibillion-dollar bribery and fraud scheme.

The billionaire and other executives of the conglomerate including his nephew Sagar Adani have been charged with agreeing to pay $265 million to Indian officials to secure contracts worth billions of dollars for his renewable energy company.

"As alleged, the defendants orchestrated an elaborate scheme to bribe Indian government officials to secure contracts worth billions of dollars and... lied about the bribery scheme as they sought to raise capital from U.S. and international investors,"  US Attorney Breon Peace said as quoted by BBC News.

"My office is committed to rooting out corruption in the international marketplace and protecting investors from those who seek to enrich themselves at the expense of the integrity of our financial markets," he added.

It has also been alleged that on several occasions, Adani, who is accused of being close to Prime Minister Narendra Modi by the Opposition, met Indian officials personally to hold discussions on the alleged bribery scheme.

The Adani Group hasn't responded yet.

After the charges were pressed against Adani, the share prices of the Adani Group companies nosedived sharply by about 20 percent on Thursday.

The share prices of Adani Enterprises and Adani Energy Solutions fell by 20 percent, Adani Green Energy by 19.17%, Adani Total Gas by 18.14%, Adani Power by 17.79%, Ambuja Cements 14.99%, NDTV 14.37% among others.

On November 13, Adani marked his announcement of his investment of $10 billion in US energy security and infrastructure projects along with his congratulatory message to US President-elect Donald Trump.

Adani wrote on X, "Congratulations to @realDonaldTrump. As the partnership between India and the United States deepens, the Adani Group is committed to leveraging its global expertise and invest $10 billion in US energy security and resilient infrastructure projects, aiming to create up to 15,000 jobs. "

The US Securities and Exchange Commission has charged Adani for "defrauding American investors and bribing officials", The Times of India reported.

Sagar Adani, Adani Green Energy executives and Cyril Cabanes have been charged with conspiring 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 US investors and global financial institutions through false and misleading statements".

Prosecutors claimed Adani was referred to by some conspiracy by code names 'Numero uno' and 'the big man'.

Congress, which is India's primary opposition party, did not spare a moment from launching an attack on Adani drawing his alleged nexus with the Prime Minister.

The grand old party posted on X, "Congress is continuously talking about investigating Adani and the scams related to him, but Narendra Modi is trying his best to save Adani. The reason is clear - if Adani is investigated then every link will be connected to Narendra Modi."

Hitting back at the Congress, BJP IT Cell head Amit Malviya said the states mentioned in the indictment were all opposition ruled states.

"...Since the power was costly, the SDCs were not willing to buy. Therefore, the Adanis (in collusion with Azure Power; a US firm) paid the equivalent of US $265 million to SDCs based in Odisha (BJD ruled), Tamilnadu (DMK), Chattisgarh (Congress) and Andhra Pradesh (YSRCP) between Jul 21 and Feb 22 (by far the largest to AP).

"All the States mentioned here were Opposition ruled during that time. So, before you pontificate, answer on the bribes the Congress and its allies accepted."

Responding to Malviya's post, Leader of Opposition and Congress MP Rahul Gandhi said, "The investigation must take place in any state even if it is ruled by the opposition. But the investigation must take place and the kingpin must be arrested."