Gautam Adani, Asia’s second fortune, accused by the US of multimillion-dollar bribes to Indian officials

A federal court in Brooklyn (New York) has accused these executives – all of Indian nationality except one French-Australian – of “lying to investors and banks to raise billions of dollars and obstruct justice», as explained by the deputy attorney general of the Criminal Division of the Department of Justice, Lisa H. Miller.

«These crimes were allegedly comitted by senior executives and directors to obtain and finance massive state energy supply contracts through corruption and fraud at the expense of American investors. “The Criminal Division will continue to aggressively pursue corrupt, deceptive and obstructive conduct that violates US law, no matter where in the world it occurs,” he said.

Profits of almost 2,000 million

The indictment alleges that the contracts would generate more than $2 billion (€1.9 billion) in profits over a period of approximately 20 years. To this end, Adani met personally with an Indian government official to promote the plan, which took place between 2020 and 2024, while the rest of the defendants held meetings among themselves to discuss aspects of its execution, including evidence on several of their phones. mobiles.

In a parallel action, the United States Securities and Exchange Commission has charged Adanis, as an executive of ‘Adani Green Energy’, and Cyril Cabanes, an executive of ‘Azure Power Global’, for a bribery scheme that allowed both companies to profit of a contract with the Indian Government for which they raised 175 million dollars (166 million euros) from American investors.

According to the Bloomberg Billionaire Index, Adani, with a fortune of more than $85 billion, is the second richest person in Asia, behind his compatriot Mukesh Ambani. He is the founder of the Indian conglomerate Adani Group.