U.S. Files Bribery and Fraud Indictments Against Adani

• The U.S. Department of Justice has indicted Adani for bribery and fraud, citing actions taken between 2020 and 2024.

• The defendants include Gautam Adani, Sagar Adani, Vneet S Jaain, Ranjit Gupta, Cyril Cabanes, Saurabh Agarwal, Deepak Malhotra, and Rupesh Agarwal.

• The charges are under the U.S.’s Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, 1977 (FCPA), which prohibits making payments to foreign government officials to secure business.

• The defendants are also charged with obstructing federal investigations by providing false information and destroying evidence.

• The indictment also charges the defendants with falsely denying their involvement in the bribery scheme to FBI agents.

• The defendants allegedly authorised and collaborated on a scheme to pay over $250 million in bribes to Indian government officials to secure solar power purchase contracts for Adani Green Energy and Azure Power from Solar Energy Corporation of India (SECI).

• The indictment alleges that the Adanis resorted to a bribery scheme due to SECI’s inability to find buyers for Adanis’ solar power.

• The indictment notes that many State distribution companies signed Power Sale Agreements (PSAs) with SECI after promising bribes to Indian government officials.