Adani and 7 others: Who are the defendants in the $265 mn bribery case in the US?

Who are these persons and what are the allegations against them?

Gautam Adani, Sagar Adani and Vneet Jaain

• Gautam Adani is president and laminitis of the Adani Group, the ports-to-airport conglomerate. He is besides the president of Adani Green Energy Ltd.
• Sagar Adani, the nephew of Gautam Adani, is the enforcement manager of Adani Green Energy.
• Vneet Jaain is the managing manager of Adani Green Energy, and has been associated with the Adani Group for much than 15 years.

Charges against them:

“Gautam S Adani and 7 different concern executives allegedly bribed the Indian authorities to concern lucrative contracts designed to payment their businesses. Adani and different defendants besides defrauded investors by raising superior connected the ground of mendacious statements astir bribery and corruption, portion inactive different defendants allegedly attempted to conceal the bribery conspiracy by obstructing the government’s investigation,” the property merchandise said, quoting James E. Dennehy, Assistant Director successful Charge, Federal Bureau of Investigation, New York Field Office (FBI), who announced the charges on with Breon Peace, US Attorney for the Eastern District of New York, and Lisa H. Miller, Deputy Assistant Attorney General for the Justice Department’s Criminal Division.

“On respective occasions, Gautam S Adani personally met with an Indian authorities authoritative to beforehand the Bribery Scheme, and the defendants held in-person meetings with each different to sermon aspects of its execution,” the property merchandise said.

Gautam Adani, Sagar Adani, and Jaain conspired to “misrepresent the Indian Energy Company’s (a notation to Adani Green Energy Ltd) anti-bribery and corruption practices and conceal the Bribery Scheme from US investors and planetary fiscal institutions successful bid to get financing, including to money those star vigor proviso contracts procured done bribery,” the merchandise alleged.

The 3 defendants caused Adani Green and immoderate of its subsidiaries to “raise superior connected the ground of mendacious and misleading statements successful transportation with (i) 2 US dollar-denominated syndicate loans totaling much than $2 cardinal from lender groups comprised of planetary fiscal institutions and US-based investors; and (ii) 2 Rule 144A enslaved offerings for much than $1 cardinal underwritten by planetary fiscal institutions, which were marketed and sold to investors successful the US, among different places”.

Also, “they caused the Indian Energy Company to marque mendacious statements successful their consolidated fiscal statements and to the marketplace and investors regarding the Bribery Scheme”, the merchandise said.

According to the indictment, Sagar Adani utilized his cellphone to “track circumstantial details of the bribes offered and promised to authorities officials”. Jaain allegedly utilized his cellphone “to photograph a papers summarizing assorted bribe amounts the US Issuer owed the Indian Energy Company for its respective information of the bribes”.

Ranjit Gupta and Rupesh Agarwal

• Ranjit Gupta was the CEO of Azure Power Global Ltd betwixt 2019 and 2022. Azure has been named successful a second, civilian ailment filed by the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), arsenic the institution that “agreed to wage a information of those bribes and Defendants were besides personally progressive successful collecting outgo from Azure”. The Justice Department property merchandise refers to Azure arsenic “a renewable-energy institution with securities that had traded connected the New York Stock Exchange”. The institution was delisted successful November 2023, according to the SEC complaint.
• Rupesh Agarwal worked with Azure Power betwixt 2022 and 2023.

Charges against them:

As per the US Attorney’s Office, Rupesh Agarwal “prepared and distributed to different defendants aggregate analyses utilizing PowerPoint and Excel that summarized assorted options for paying and concealing bribe payments (Bribery Analyses)”.

He, on with different defendants Cabanes, Agarwal, and Malhotra, “conspired to obstruct the expansive jury, FBI and US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) investigations into the Bribery Scheme”, according to the property release.

Cyril Cabanes, Saurabh Agarwal and Deepak Malhotra

Cabanes, a national of Australia and France, and Indian citizens Agarwal and Malhotra worked for the Canadian pension money CDPQ, which owned a ample involvement successful Azure.

Charges against them:

Cabanes, Agarwal and Malhotra person been indicted for “conspiracy to interruption the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act successful transportation with a bribery strategy besides perpetrated by Gautam Adani, Sagar Adani and Vneet Jaain”, the property merchandise said.

The 3 erstwhile executives of the Canadian organization investor, on with Rupesh Agarwal, person been charged with “conspiracy to obstruct justice”, according to the property release.