What are the US federal charges against Gautam Adani? What’s next for the businessman? ANNOUNCED – India TV

New Delhi: Billionaire Gautam Adani has been accused by US prosecutors of conspiring with executives of a company previously registered in New York to devise a $265 million scheme to bribe Indian officials to expand his solar business. While Adani Group has denied the allegations as “baseless”, Indian government officials have not commented so far.

Here is an overview of the investigation and the allegations in the US indictment:

What are the allegations about Adani?

US prosecutors have charged Gautam Adani, his nephew Sagar Adani, an executive at Adani Green, and six others for alleged bribery and fraud related to renewable energy projects in India that benefited the tycoon’s company and India’s Azure Power, which was recently listed on the NYSE . 2023.

In 2020, Wednesday’s unsealed indictment alleged that Adani Green and Azure executives “knowingly and willingly conspired” and agreed to “corruptly” offer, authorize and bribe government officials in India to “obtain or retain business advantages.” The indictment also accuses Adani and its executives of making false and misleading statements to investors and lenders in the United States about the company’s anti-bribery commitments and practices while soliciting money.

Adani has raised more than $3 billion in loans and bonds between 2021 and 2024, including from investors in the United States. “Gautam and Sagar Adani were involved in a bribery scheme during a securities offering by Adani Green in September 2021 that raised $750 million, including approximately $175 million from US investors. Adani Green offering materials, anti-corruption and anti-bribery contained statements about his efforts that “were materially false or misleading,” the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission said.

Prosecutors alleged that Adanis made misleading statements to the public, the Indian stock market and investors earlier this year despite being aware of the US investigation in 2023.

How were bribes tracked and paid?

Sagar Adani, managing director of Adani Green and nephew of Gautam Adani, used his mobile phone to track details of bribes offered to Indian officials, US officials have alleged. Azure executives also prepared an analysis using Excel and PowerPoint to outline the different ways Adani Green could have been paid back for bribes it paid to benefit both companies.

One route discussed was to describe the internal payment at Azure as a “development fee,” but US officials instead used another option, such as having Azure hand over one of its projects to Adani instead of part of the payment.

In its statement, Azure said that the former officials of the company named in the US indictment are no longer associated with the company and that the company continues to cooperate with US authorities.

What were the energy projects in question?

US officials called these transactions the “Corrupt Solar Project” in the indictment. Between 2019 and 2020, Adani Green and Azure won renewable energy tenders from the Solar Energy Corporation of India (SECI), a central government-owned entity. The project involved setting up solar power plants in various states of India. U.S. officials alleged that Adani and others devised a scheme to bribe Indian state government officials to make deals with SECI that would “benefit” Adani subsidiaries and Azure.

How did US federal agents investigate and seize evidence?

In March 2023, FBI special agents approached Sagar Adani with details of the grand jury’s ongoing investigation into the group and other organizations. They took custody of the electronic devices in Sagar’s possession and served him with the search warrant and grand jury subpoena.

The search warrant identified crimes, individuals, and entities being investigated by the United States for violations of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, securities fraud, and wire fraud.

What’s next for the Adani group?

Adani Group said in a statement that it would seek “every legal recourse possible.” Indian lawyers said there was a possibility that the matter could be resolved between the Indian businessman and US officials, and that the billionaire could also request that the indictment be dismissed.

Debopriyo Moulik, a criminal lawyer in New Delhi, said that since an arrest warrant was issued by the US authorities, they had to approach the Indian government through the Indian embassy to execute the warrant. The grand jury said that if any of the executives were found guilty of the charges, they would have to forfeit any property or income obtained directly or indirectly as a result of the crimes.

(With input from the agency)

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