Gautam S. Adani, founder and chairman of Indian conglomerate Adani, has been indicted in the US as part of an alleged bribery scheme.

The US Attorney's Office, Eastern District of New York, this week announced a five-count criminal indictment today in federal court in Brooklyn, charging Gautam S. Adani, Sagar R. Adani, and Vneet S. Jaain with conspiracies to commit securities and wire fraud and substantive securities fraud.

The men are accused of taking part in a multi-billion-dollar scheme to obtain funds from US investors and global financial institutions on the basis of “false and misleading statements.”

The US Securities and Exchange Commission SEC) has also charged Gautam Adani and Sagar Adani, as well as Cyril Cabanes, an executive of Azure Power Global Ltd., for “conduct arising out of a massive bribery scheme.”

The company has denied the allegations.

As alleged in the indictment, between approximately 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.

“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 US and international investors,” said 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.”

“As alleged, Gautam and Sagar Adani induced US investors to buy Adani Green bonds through an offering process that misrepresented not only that Adani Green had a robust anti-bribery compliance program but also that the company’s senior management had not and would not pay or promise to pay bribes, and Cyril Cabanes participated in the underlying bribery scheme while serving as director of a US public company,” added Sanjay Wadhwa, acting director of the SEC’s division of enforcement. “We will continue to vigorously pursue and hold individuals, including senior corporate officers and directors, accountable when they violate our securities laws.”

Gautam Adani is reported to have personally met with an Indian government official on multiple occasions to advance the scheme. The defendants held in-person meetings with each other to discuss aspects of its execution and discussed the matter through an electronic messaging application.

Sagar Adani reportedly used his phone to track specific details of the bribes offered and promised to government officials; Vneet Jaain used his phone to photograph a document summarizing various bribe amounts owed. Rupesh Agarwal prepared and distributed to other defendants multiple analyses using PowerPoint and Excel that summarized various options for paying and concealing payments.

The defendants allegedly conspired to misrepresent Adani Energy’s anti-bribery and corruption practices and conceal the scheme from US investors and international financial institutions in order to obtain financing, including to fund those solar energy supply contracts procured through bribery. As a result, they raised capital based on false and misleading statements totaling more than $3bn.

Adani Group is an Indian multinational conglomerate founded by Gautam Adani in 1988. Amongst its many ventures, the company develops and operates data centers across the country in partnership with EdgeConneX.

Sagar Adani is an executive director of Adani Green Energy, a renewable company with a project portfolio totaling more than 20GW across India.

2023 saw Adani come under fire after short-seller Hindenburg Research published an investigation alleging stock manipulation, accounting fraud, and money laundering. The conglomerate denied the claims.

The indictment also charges Ranjit Gupta and Rupesh Agarwal, former executives of a renewable-energy company with securities that had traded on the New York Stock Exchange, and Cyril Cabanes, Saurabh Agarwal, and Deepak Malhotra, former employees of a Canadian institutional investor, with conspiracy to violate the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act.

“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 Dennehy. “The FBI maintains its steadfast mission to expose all corrupt agreements, especially with international governments, and protect investors from related harm.”

In response, Adani Group said the allegations made by the US Department of Justice and the US Securities and Exchange Commission against directors of Adani Green were “baseless and denied.”

The group reaffirmed that, as stated by the US Department of Justice, the charges are allegations at this point and the defendants are presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty, and “all possible legal recourse” will be sought.

“The Adani Group has always upheld and is steadfastly committed to maintaining the highest standards of governance, transparency, and regulatory compliance across all jurisdictions of its operations. We assure our stakeholders, partners, and employees that we are a law-abiding organization, fully compliant with all laws,” the company said.