Adani Green says independent review found no regulatory breach in bribery-linked US case
Mumbai: Adani Green Energy has said an independent evaluation of its regulatory compliances in connection with an allegation of non-compliance based on which a US court indicted Adani Group Chairman Gautam Adani and two other officials of the company, did not find irregularities on the matter, PTI reported
In November 2024, US authorities charged Adani, his nephew and executive director Sagar Adani and managing director Vneet S Jaain with bribery of Indian government officials, allegedly for solar energy contracts while they sought to raise money from US investors.
The solar power sale contracts could bring in USD 2 billion of profits over 20 year period to the firm, according to the report.
In its FY25 earning announcement, Adani Green Energy - the firm at the centre of allegation of USD 265 million bribes said its holding company has not been named as a defendant in the indictment and civil complaint and the matter was pending for further proceedings.
Earlier, Adani Group had rubbished the allegations and said it would seek legal recourse to defend itself.
"To uphold the principles of good governance, the Holding Company (of AGEL) appointed independent law firms to perform an independent review to assess and evaluate related non-compliance, if any, in this matter," the filing said.
"Such independent review also did not identify any non-compliances or irregularities in the matter."
In November 2024, the United States Department of Justice (US DoJ) filed an indictment against two executive directors and one non-executive director of the holding company and a civil complaint by the Securities and Exchange Commission (US SEC).
"As per the indictment, these directors have been charged on three counts in the criminal indictment, namely alleged securities and fraud conspiracy, alleged wire fraud conspiracy and alleged securities fraud for making false and misleading statements. And as per US SEC civil complaints, directors omitting material factors that rendered certain statements misleading to US investors under Securities Act of 1933 and the Securities Act of 1934," it said.
AGEL said its holding company has confirmed making "all appropriate disclosures in the past, including in bond offering circulars" that raised money from the US markets.
DoJ has alleged that between 2020 and 2024, senior executives of Adani Green, Azure Power and CDPQ (Caisse de depot et placement du Quebec), a Canadian institutional investor and Azure's largest shareholder, joined a scheme to bribe Indian government officials to win the lucrative solar energy supply contracts with Indian government entities.
At the same time, senior executives of Adani Green Energy Ltd (AGEL) colluded to misrepresent the company's anti-bribery practices (to US-based investors and international financial institutions) and hid from those investors and institutions their bribery of Indian government officials to secure billions of dollars in funding for green energy projects, which also included the corrupt solar energy supply contracts.
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