Billionaire Gautam Adani and seven executives indicted in $250M bribery scheme

November 21, 2024 Robert Abruzzese, Courthouse Editor

The U.S. Eastern District of New York’s Brooklyn courthouse. Brooklyn Eagle photo by Rob Abruzzese

Share this:

A group of business executives are accused of paying more than $250 million in bribes to Indian officials to secure solar energy contracts and lying to U.S. investors to raise billions of dollars.

Federal prosecutors in Brooklyn unsealed a five-count indictment on Tuesday, charging billionaire Gautam S. Adani and seven senior business executives with orchestrating an international bribery and fraud scheme.

The charges include conspiracy to commit securities fraud, wire fraud and violations of anti-corruption laws. The defendants are accused of paying more than $250 million in bribes to Indian government officials to secure solar energy contracts and concealing their actions from U.S. investors.

The indictment alleges that Adani, chairman of an Indian conglomerate, personally met with government officials in India to advance the scheme. His co-defendants include Sagar R. Adani and Vneet S. Jaain, executives of an Indian renewable energy company, as well as Ranjit Gupta and Rupesh Agarwal, former executives of a U.S.-based issuer, and Cyril Cabanes, Saurabh Agarwal and Deepak Malhotra, former employees of a Canadian institutional investor.

“As alleged, the defendants orchestrated an elaborate scheme to bribe Indian government officials to secure contracts worth billions of dollars, and Gautam S. Adani, Sagar R. Adani and Vneet S. Jaain lied about the bribery scheme as they sought to raise capital from U.S. and international investors,” said U.S. Attorney Breon Peace. “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.”

Prosecutors allege that between 2020 and 2024, the defendants paid more than $250 million in bribes to secure Indian government contracts for a solar energy project expected to generate $2 billion in profits over 20 years. They reportedly documented the scheme with spreadsheets, phone records and presentations while also misleading U.S. and global investors by hiding the bribery in financial disclosures.

Officials say the group raised more than $3 billion through loans and bonds based on false claims about anti-corruption practices. Prosecutors also accuse some defendants of obstructing investigations by deleting evidence, withholding information and lying to authorities.