Adani Group has clarified that there are no charges related to bribery in the US against chairman Gautam Adani, his nephew Sagar Adani and senior executive Vineet Jain. According to the Adani Group, the news running in many media houses on allegations of bribery and corruption against Gautam Adani, Sagar Adani and Vineet Jain under the US Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) is ‘false’. However, they have cases related to securities and wire fraud in the US. Five cases with the US Department of Justice
The company said that the US Department of Justice has five cases. It does not include Gautam Adani, Sagar Adani or Vineet Jain in Count 1 and Count 5. Count One i.e. ‘conspiracy to violate the FCPA’ and Count 5 i.e. ‘conspiracy to obstruct justice.’ Count One of the indictment only includes Azure Power’s Ranjit Gupta, Cyril Cabanes, Saurabh Agarwal, Deepak Malhotra and Rupesh Agarwal. The statement said that under this, the Department of Justice has not named any official of the Adani Group. The statement further said, Adani Group officials have been charged only with Count 2: “Alleged Securities Fraud Conspiracy”, Count 3: “Alleged Wire Fraud Conspiracy”. This case was registered in the Federal Court of New York on 24 October 2024. In fact, on November 21, the United States Attorney’s Office had said that Adani had given or was planning to give a bribe of $ 265 million (about Rs 2200 crore) to Indian officials to get a contract related to solar energy in India. This whole matter is related to Adani Group company Adani Green Energy Limited and another firm. This case was registered in the Federal Court of New York on 24 October 2024. In its hearing on Wednesday, November 20, Gautam Adani, his nephew Sagar Adani, Vineet S Jain, Ranjit Gupta, Cyril Cabanis, Saurabh Agarwal, Deepak Malhotra and Rupesh Agarwal have been made accused. The Reuters report said that an arrest warrant has also been issued against Gautam Adani and Sagar. Sagar is an officer of Adani Green Energy Limited. Understand, what is the whole case of manipulation and bribery…
According to the filing of the US Justice Department, Solar Energy Corporation of India i.e. SECI had issued a contract for the supply of 12 gigawatts of energy 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 i.e. AGEL and a foreign firm won the contract. They were issued a Letter of Award (LOA). Here a problem arose. SECI was not getting customers for the electricity purchased from AGEL and foreign firms. In such a situation, he would not be able to buy electricity from AGEL and the foreign firm. This would cause losses to Adani’s company and the foreign firm. According to the charge sheet, Gautam Adani, along with his nephew Sagar Adani, Vineet Jain and 7 other people, hatched a conspiracy to bribe the officials. So that the state governments enter into a power sale agreement with SECI and their solar power agreement gets a buyer. According to the charge sheet, ‘Gautam Adani met a senior official of Andhra Pradesh several times between 7 August 2021 and 20 November 2021. So that a solar power agreement could be signed between Andhra Pradesh Electricity Distribution Company (APEPDCL) and SECI.’ After this, an agreement was signed between APEPDCL and SECI. AGEL and the foreign firm got the contract. After this, the State Electricity Distribution Boards of Chhattisgarh, Tamil Nadu, Odisha, Jammu and Kashmir signed contracts for purchasing electricity. Two official documents have been issued in this entire case… 1. Indictment filed by US prosecutors in the clerk’s office of the Eastern District Court of New York. There is no mention of arrest warrant in this. 2. Press release issued by the US Attorney’s Office of the Eastern District of New York. There is also no mention of arrest warrant against Gautam Adani in this. At the same time, American news agency Reuters wrote in a report of November 21, ‘According to court records, a judge has issued arrest warrants for Gautam Adani and Sagar Adani. Prosecutors have prepared to hand over these warrants to foreign law enforcement. Adani Group has termed all the allegations as baseless Adani Group has termed all the allegations as baseless. Issuing a statement on November 21, the group had said- ‘The allegations leveled by the United States Department of Justice and the United States Securities and Exchange Commission against the directors of Adani Green Energy Limited are baseless. We deny them. The US Justice Department itself said that these are just allegations right now. The accused are presumed innocent until proven guilty. Sagar Adani manages the energy business. Gautam Adani’s nephew, Sagar has an economics degree from Brown University US. Sagar joined the Adani Group in 2015. Sagar manages the energy business and finance of the group. He focuses on the renewable energy business and plans to make the company the world’s largest renewable energy producer by 2030. Adani Green Energy has a clean energy portfolio of over 20 gigawatts. Adani Green Energy Limited has a clean energy portfolio of over 20 gigawatts, which includes one of the world’s largest solar power plants in the southern state of Tamil Nadu. The Adani Group has set a target of becoming the country’s largest company in this sector by 2030. The company’s market cap is Rs 1.85 lakh crore.
