Gautam Adani indicted in U.S. for alleged bribery scheme

Billionaire Gautam Adani has been indicted in a federal court in Brooklyn, New York for allegedly bribing Indian government officials with over $250 million to secure lucrative solar energy contracts worth billions of dollars.

A five-count criminal indictment was unsealed in federal court in Brooklyn charging Gautam Adani, his nephew Sagar Adani and Vneet S. Jaain, managing director and CEO of Adani Green Energy, along with five other individuals for allegedly promising bribes to government officials in India and concealing it from U.S. and international investors, according to U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of New York.

Between 2020 and 2024, the defendants agreed to pay more than $250 million in bribes to Indian government officials to obtain lucrative solar energy supply contracts with the Indian government, which were projected to generate more than $2 billion in profits after tax over an approximately 20-year period, allege U.S. prosecutors.

On several occasions, Gautam Adani personally met with an Indian government official to “advance” the bribery scheme, and the defendants held in-person meetings with each other to discuss aspects of its execution, federal prosecutors say.

U.S. prosecutors have accused Gautam Adani, Sagar Adani and Vneet S. Jaain of conspiring to conceal the bribery scheme from U.S. investors and international financial institutions in order to obtain financing, including to fund those solar energy supply contracts procured through bribery.

"As alleged, Gautam S. Adani, Sagar R. Adani and Vneet S. Jaain caused the Indian Energy Company and certain of its subsidiaries to raise capital on the basis of false and misleading statements in connection with (i) two U.S. dollar-denominated syndicate loans totaling more than $2 billion from lender groups comprised of international financial institutions and U.S.-based investors; and (ii) two Rule 144A bond offerings for more than $1 billion underwritten by international financial institutions, which were marketed and sold to investors in the U.S., among other places," they allege.

The defendants frequently discussed their efforts in furtherance of the bribery scheme, including through an electronic messaging application, say U.S. prosecutors. “The defendants also extensively documented their corrupt efforts:  for example, Sagar R. Adani used his cellular phone to track specific details of the bribes offered and promised to government officials; Vneet S. Jaain used his cellular phone to photograph a document summarizing various bribe amounts the U.S. Issuer owed the Indian Energy Company for its respective portion of the bribes; and Rupesh Agarwal prepared and distributed to other defendants multiple analyses using PowerPoint and Excel that summarized various options for paying and concealing bribe payments,” U.S. prosecutors allege.

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, states Breon Peace, United States Attorney for the Eastern District of New York. “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.”

These offenses were allegedly committed by senior executives and directors to obtain and finance massive state energy supply contracts through corruption and fraud at the expense of U.S. investors. The Criminal Division will continue to aggressively prosecute corrupt, deceptive, and obstructive conduct that violates U.S. law, no matter where in the world it occurs,” states Lisa H. Miller, deputy assistant attorney general for the Justice Department’s Criminal Division.

The investigation was conducted by the FBI New York’s Corporate, Securities and Commodities Fraud and International Corruption Units.

“Gautam S. Adani and seven other business executives allegedly bribed the Indian government to finance lucrative contracts designed to benefit their businesses. Adani and other defendants also defrauded investors by raising capital on the basis of false statements about bribery and corruption, while still other defendants allegedly attempted to conceal the bribery conspiracy by obstructing the government’s investigation,” stated FBI assistant director in charge James E. Dennehy. “The FBI maintains its steadfast mission to expose all corrupt agreements, especially with international governments, and protect investors from related harm.”

The indictment further alleges that Cyril Cabanes, Saurabh Agarwal, Deepak Malhotra and Rupesh Agarwal conspired to obstruct the grand jury, FBI and U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) investigations into the bribery scheme.

In a separate lawsuit, the Securities and Exchange Commission charged business magnate Gautam Adani and Sagar Adani, executives of Adani Green Energy, and Cyril Cabanes, an executive of Azure Power Global, for conduct arising out of a massive bribery scheme. SEC says the alleged bribes were paid in order to “secure [the Indian government’s] commitment to purchase energy at above-market rates that would benefit Adani Green and Azure Power.” According to the SEC’s allegations, the bribery scheme was orchestrated to enable the two renewable energy companies to capitalise on a multi-billion-dollar solar energy project that the companies had been awarded by the Indian government. During the alleged scheme, Adani Green raised more than $175 million from U.S. investors and Azure Power’s stock was traded on the New York Stock Exchange.