NEW DELHI (dpa-AFX) - Indian billionaire Gautam Adani and six of his top executives were indicted in New York for their alleged roles in a five years-long, multi-billion-dollar bribery and fraud scheme involving plans to develop a lucrative solar power plant.
Adani, one of the world's richest businessmen, and other senior executives have been accused of promising to pay $250 million in bribes to Indian Government officials to win contracts to develop the proposed plant.
A five-count criminal indictment was unsealed in federal court in Brooklyn charging Gautam S. Adani, Sagar R. Adani and Vneet S. Jaain, executives of the Adani Green Energy Ltd and Azure Power Global, with conspiracies to commit securities and wire fraud for their roles in a multi-billion-dollar scheme to obtain funds from U.S. investors and global financial institutions on the basis of false and misleading statements, the U.S. Department of Justice said in a statement Wednesday.
These three men have been accused of their role in making false statements in the company's consolidated financial statements and to the market and investors regarding the bribery scheme.
The indictment further alleges that Cyril Cabanes, Saurabh Agarwal, Deepak Malhotra and Rupesh Agarwal conspired to obstruct the grand jury, FBI and U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission investigations into the Bribery Scheme.
US prosecutors alleged that between 2020 and 2024, the solar energy supply contracts were projected to generate more than $2 billion in profits after tax over an approximately 20-year period.
The Adani Group has denied allegations made by SEC and the US Department of Justice.
The stock value of Adani group's listed companies reportedly fell up to 20 percent on Thursday.
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