Adani Group Chairman Gautam Adani was charged with corruption on November 20.
Adani Group has clarified that there are no allegations of corruption in America against chairman Gautam Adani, his nephew Sagar Adani and senior executive Vineet Jain.
According to Adani Group, reports published in several media outlets on the bribery and corruption charges against Gautam Adani, Sagar Adani and Vineet Jain under the US Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) are “incorrect”. However, he faces cases related to financial and wire fraud in the United States.
The US Department of Justice has five cases The company said the U.S. Department of Justice has five pending cases against it. In this, Gautam Adani, Sagar Adani or Vineet Jain were not included in counts 1 and 5. Count one means “conspiracy to violate the FCPA” and count five means “conspiracy to obstruct justice”.
One of the indictments only covers Ranjit Gupta, Cyril Cabens, Saurabh Agarwal, Deepak Malhotra and Rupesh Agarwal of Azure Power. The press release indicates that as such, the Ministry of Justice has not named any official from the Adani group.
The statement further said that the Adani Group officials were only charged with Count 2: “alleged securities fraud conspiracy”, Count 3: “alleged wire fraud conspiracy”.
This case was filed in New York Federal Court on October 24, 2024.
In fact, on November 21, the US Attorney’s Office said Adani had given or planned to give a $265 million (around Rs 2,200 crore) bribe to Indian officials to obtain a solar energy contract in India.
This whole matter is linked to the Adani group company, Adani Green Energy Limited, and another company. This case was filed in the New York Federal Court on October 24, 2024. At his hearing on Wednesday, November 20, Gautam Adani, his nephew Sagar Adani, Vineet S Jain, Ranjit Gupta, Cyril Cabenis, Saurabh Aggarwal, Deepak Malhotra and Rupesh Aggarwal were accused.
A Reuters report states that arrest warrants have also been issued against Gautam Adani and Sagar. Sagar is an officer of Adani Green Energy Limited.
Pictured are Gautam Adani (sitting on chair, first from right) and Sagar Adani (standing behind, first from left).
Understand what this whole issue of manipulation and corruption is According to the US Department of Justice filing, the Solar Energy Corporation of India, i.e. SECI, had entered into a contract for the supply of 12 GW of power in the country. SECI is a renewable energy company of the Government of India, which aims to increase the use of solar energy in the country.
Between December 2019 and July 2020, Adani Green Energy Limited (AGEL) and a foreign company won the contract. He received a Letter of Award (LOA).
A problem has arisen here. SECI could not find customers for the electricity purchased from AGEL and foreign companies. In such a situation, it is not able to purchase electricity from AGEN and foreign companies. This would have caused losses to Adani’s company and the foreign company.
According to the chargesheet, Gautam Adani, his nephew Sagar Adani, Vineet Jain and 7 people conspired to bribe the officials. So that state governments enter into power sales agreements with SECI and their solar power agreements find buyers.
According to the charge sheet, Gautam Adani met a senior official of Andhra Pradesh several times between August 7, 2021 and November 20, 2021. Thus, an agreement on solar energy is signed between Andhra Pradesh Electricity Distribution Company (APEPDCL) and SECI.
After this, an agreement was signed between APEPDCL and SECI. AGEL and the foreign company were awarded the contract. After this, the National Electricity Distribution Board of Chhattisgarh, Tamil Nadu, Odisha, Jammu and Kashmir signed power purchase agreements.
Two official documents have been published in this whole affair…
1. Indictment filed by United States Attorneys with the Office of the Eastern District Court of New York. There’s no mention of an arrest warrant in there.
2. Press release issued by the United States Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of New York. In this document also, there is no mention of an arrest warrant against Gautam Adani.
At the same time, the American news agency Reuters wrote in a November 21 report: “According to court records, a judge has issued an arrest warrant for Gautam Adani and Sagar Adani. Prosecutors are preparing to hand over these arrest warrants to foreign law enforcement.
Adani Group declared all allegations baseless
The Adani Group has called all the allegations baseless. In a statement released on November 21, the group said: “The allegations made by the United States Department of Justice and the United States Securities and Exchange Commission against the directors of Adani Green Energy Limited are without merit. We refute them.
The US Department of Justice itself has stated that these are only allegations so far. The accused are considered innocent until proven guilty.
Sagar Adani manages the energy activities.
The nephew of Gautam Adani, Sagar holds a degree in economics from Brown University in the United States. Sagar joined the Adani Group in 2015. Sagar manages the energy and financial businesses of the group. He focuses on the renewable energy sector and plans to make the company the world’s largest producer of renewable energy by 2030.
Adani Green Energy has a clean energy portfolio of over 20 GW.
Adani Green Energy Limited has a clean energy portfolio of over 20 GW, which includes one of the world’s largest solar power plants located in the southern state of Tamil Nadu. The Adani Group has set a target to become the country’s largest company in this sector by 2030. The market capitalization of the company is Rs 1.85 lakh crore.