Indian conglomerate chair Gautam Adani indicted in the US
Al Jazeera
US prosecutors have accused Gautam Adani and others of an elaborate scheme to bribe Indian government officials to secure contracts worth billions of dollars as they sought to raise funds from US investors.
Gautam Adani, the chair of Indian conglomerate Adani Group and one of the world’s richest people, has been indicted in New York over an alleged multibillion-dollar fraud scheme, United States prosecutors have said.
On Wednesday authorities charged Adani and two other executives at Adani Green Energy, his nephew Sagar Adani and Vneet Jaain, with agreeing between 2020 and 2024 to pay more than $250m in bribes to Indian government officials to obtain solar energy supply contracts expected to yield $2bn in profits.
Prosecutors said the renewable energy company also raised more than $3bn in loans and bonds during this period based on false and misleading statements.
Five other people were hit with related criminal conspiracy charges, including two executives of another renewable energy company, and three employees of a Canadian institutional investor.
Adani Group did not immediately respond to requests for comment outside business hours in India, where the charges were announced early Thursday morning.
