Adani Group to make detailed comment on U.S. bribery allegations

Adani Group on Saturday said it will respond to bribery allegations levelled by the U.S. government after reviewing the charges in detail and seeking counsel approval as the matter is "sub-judice."

Jugeshinder Robbie Singh, the chief financial officer of Adani Group, says the allegations specifically relate to one contract of Adani Green Energy which is roughly 10% of the overall business of Adani Green.

"There is a lot more precise and comprehensive detail of this which we will elaborate in an appropriate forum," Singh says in a post on X.

Adani Group has a portfolio of 11 public companies and none are subject to indictment, the Adani group CFO says. “None of the issuers (ie companies in our portfolio or specific issuers that are subsidiaries of the public companies) are accused of any wrongdoing in the said legal filing,” he says.

Billionaire Gautam Adani, his nephew Sagar Adani and Vneet S. Jaain, managing director and CEO of Adani Green Energy, along with five other individuals were indicted in a federal court in Brooklyn, New York for allegedly bribing Indian government officials with over $250 million to secure lucrative solar energy contracts worth billions of dollars. According to the indictment filed in the court, Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) special agents approached Sagar in the United States on March 17, 2023, and took custody of electronic devices in his possession. At the same time, FBI special agents provided Sagar with a copy of the search warrant and served him with a grand jury subpoena.

The search warrant identified individuals and entities under investigation by the United States government, specifically: violations of the FCPA (Foreign Corrupt Practices Act), securities fraud, wire fraud and related conspiracies involving Sagar, Gautam and Vneet, as well as Adani Green Energy. On March 18, 2023, Gautam emailed himself photographs of each page of the search warrant executed and grand jury subpoena served on Sagar, the indictment says.

"Despite knowing certain of the subject offences and individuals under investigation by the U.S. government, the defendants Gautam Adani and Sagar Adani not only concealed the bribery scheme from financial institutions and investors in the U.S. and elsewhere but also caused others to make false and misleading statements regarding their awareness and knowledge of the U.S. government’s investigation," allege U.S. prosecutors.

Responding to U.S. bribery allegations, Singh says, "We were aware that something is afoot (and in Feb 2024 144a offering circular in Risk Factors we disclosed as such. This was first public issuance, of any of our portfolio companies or their subsidiaries or JV companies after our annual results of 31st March 2023)."

“There is a lot of news and reports that will try to pick unrelated items and create a headline. My humble request is that we will respond in fullness of time once we review in detail the matter as presented in the legal filing (Please note that no court has ruled on this and as outlined by lawyers of #DOJ these are "allegations and accused have presumption of innocence," Singh says.

“We will make a more detailed comment once we get counsel approvals to discuss what we can in public on matter that is sub-judice,” he says.

U.S. market regulator, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), also charged Gautam Adani, his nephew Sagar and Cyril Cabanes, a former executive of Azure Power’s board, for an alleged bribery plot to secure multi-billion-dollar solar energy projects.