Adani Group Dismisses Bribery, Fraud Charges In US; To Seek Legal Recourse

(The Corner Office Journal) -- Adani Group said the US Department of Justice and the US Securities & Exchange Commission’s (SEC) allegations against directors of Adani Green Energy Ltd. are “baseless” and it will seek legal recourse.

The Indian conglomerate denied the allegations and assured its stakeholders that it is a law-abiding organization, fully compliant with all laws, according to statement posted on Adani Group’s website.

Adani Group said it has always upheld and is committed to maintaining the highest standards of governance, transparency and regulatory compliance across all jurisdictions of its operations.

The group noted the US Department of Justice itself stated that "the charges in the indictment are allegations and the defendants are presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty."

Adani Group said it will seek all possible legal recourse.

Department of Justice Charges

The development came after the US Attorney’s Office charged Adani Group Chairman Gautam Adani and seven other senior business executives in connection with scheme to pay hundreds of millions of dollars in bribes and conceal bribery scheme from US investors.

Other indicted executives are Sagar Adani and Vneet Jaain, executives of Adani Green Energy, as well as Ranjit Gupta, Rupesh Agarwal, Cyril Cabanes, Saurabh Agarwal, and Deepak Malhotra.

“This indictment alleges schemes to pay over $250 million in bribes to Indian government officials, to lie to investors and banks to raise billions of dollars, and to obstruct justice,” Lisa Miller, deputy assistant attorney general for the Justice Department’s criminal division, said in a statement.

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 US investors, she added.

SEC Charges

Meanwhile, the SEC charged Gautam Adani and Sagar Adani, executives of Adani Green Energy, and Cabanes, an executive of Azure Power Global Ltd., for conduct arising out of a massive bribery scheme.

The SEC alleged that the bribery scheme was orchestrated to enable the two renewable energy companies to capitalize on a multi-billion-dollar solar energy project that the companies had been awarded by the Indian government. During the alleged scheme, Adani Green Energy raised more than $175 million from US investors and Azure Power’s stock was traded on the New York Stock Exchange, it said.

The SEC’s complaint against Gautam Adani and Sagar Adani charges them with violating the antifraud provisions of the federal securities laws, according to the statement.

No Bond Offerings

Following these allegations, Adani Green Energy said its subsidiaries have presently decided not to proceed with the proposed USD-denominated bond offerings.

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