Who is Gautam Adani – Indian billionaire charged in US in $250m bribery case

Indian billionaire Gautam Adani is facing transgression fraud charges successful the US for allegedly orchestrating a $250m (or £198m) bribery strategy to unafraid renewable vigor contracts successful India.

Prosecutors assertion helium and different 7 executives bribed officials, concealed the scheme, and misled investors to rise $3bn (or £2.4bn). The investigation, which began successful 2022, accuses Mr Adani of obstructing inquiries and furthering the fraud.

Mr Adani, a adjacent state of Indian premier curate Narendra Modi, denied the allegations.

Asia’s second-richest person, who narrowly escaped decease successful 2008 arsenic 1 of galore radical stuck wrong Mumbai’s Taj Mahal Palace Hotel erstwhile gunmen went connected a sidesplitting spree, present faces a US apprehension warrant and transgression penalties implicit the fraud and bribery charges.

Mr Adani’s businesses, spanning industries similar power, ports, sugar, and soybeans, mislaid implicit $150bn successful marketplace worth past twelvemonth aft Hindenburg Research accused his radical of improper usage of offshore taxation havens.

Before the banal drop, Mr Adani concisely became the world’s wealthiest idiosyncratic but past was ranked 25th with a nett worthy of $57.6bn.

Born successful Ahmedabad connected June 24, 1962, helium dropped retired of schoolhouse astatine 16 and founded Adani Group successful 1988. He is joined to dentist Priti Adani, and their sons, Karan and Jeet, are progressive successful the business.

On Wednesday, national prosecutors successful Brooklyn, New York, unsealed the indictment of 5 counts, accusing Mr Adani and his associates of orchestrating the strategy to unafraid lucrative star vigor contracts successful India.

The contracts, obtained betwixt 2020 and 2024, are expected to make implicit $2bn (£1.58bn) successful profit.

In a connection released connected Thursday, Adani Group said the allegations made by the US Department of Justice and the US Securities and Exchange Commission against directors of Adani Green are baseless and denied each wrongdoing. The group’s spokesperson said each imaginable ineligible recourse volition beryllium sought.

The conglomerate’s spokesperson assured “our stakeholders, partners and employees that we are a law-abiding organisation, afloat compliant with each laws”.

Billionaire astatine centre of controversy

Last year, Mr Adani, erstwhile the world’s second-richest man, faced an unprecedented situation that rocked the Indian concern satellite and wiped retired billions of dollars from his wealth.

The billionaire’s companies mislaid adjacent to $75bn successful the span of conscionable 1 week and dropped retired of the apical 10 database successful the Forbes Billionaires Index. In the process, Mr Adani was overtaken by longtime rival Mukesh Ambani arsenic Asia’s richest man.

The abrupt autumn successful the wealthiness of Asia’s richest man, known for his meteoric emergence and adjacent ties with premier curate Narendra Modi, came aft an activistic concern steadfast released a report accusing his institution Adani Group of pulling the “largest con successful firm history”.

The study alleged “brazen” banal manipulation and accounting fraud worthy $218bn” by the multinational conglomerate, progressive successful resources, logistics and energy, wiping billions from the idiosyncratic nett worthy of Mr Adani.

The crisp autumn successful stocks and allegations raised concerns implicit the immense magnitude of investments made by Indian nationalist assemblage companies successful Mr Adani’s businesses, amid fears that it could extremity up affecting the fortunes of millions of Indians.

Here’s a look astatine who Mr Adani is, what are the latest allegations against him, and however his autumn could interaction the wealthiness of Indian citizens.

Who is Adani?

The 62-year-old concern tycoon built his empire starting arsenic a humble plastics trader successful Gujarat, besides the location authorities of Mr Modi wherever helium was elected arsenic the main curate 3 times.

Mr Adani’s fortunes began to instrumentality signifier soon aft India’s liberalisation successful 1990s, erstwhile helium was tasked with processing a deep-water larboard astatine Mundra, which present hosts the largest commercialized larboard successful the country.

Since then, Adani Group has seen a meteoric rise, expanding into infrastructure, logistics and energy, often inviting questions from crticis implicit his closeness with Mr Modi.

Mr Adani made headlines astir the satellite past twelvemonth erstwhile helium concisely surpassed Jeff Bezos arsenic the world’s second-richest man, becoming the look of India’s fast-growing economy.

Over the years, determination person been respective allegations against Mr Adani, including of cronyism, arsenic his firms person won galore Indian vigor and infrastructure authorities contracts.

What are the US charges against him

“As alleged, the defendants orchestrated an elaborate strategy to bribe Indian authorities officials to unafraid contracts worth billions of dollars and Gautam S Adani, Sagar R Adani and Vneet S Jaain lied astir the bribery strategy arsenic they sought to rise superior from US and planetary investors,” US lawyer Breon Peace said connected Wednesday.

The different defendants named by US prosecutors are Ranjit Gupta and Rupesh Agarwal, erstwhile executives of a renewable vigor steadfast listed successful the US, and Cyril Cabanes, Saurabh Agarwal and Deepak Malhotra, employees of a Canadian organization investor.

They are accused of conspiring to obstruct investigations by a expansive jury, the FBI and the US Securities and Exchange Commission by destroying evidence, withholding accusation during an interior inquiry, and falsely denying engagement successful the bribery strategy during meetings with US authorities.

“On respective occasions, Gautam S Adani personally met with an Indian authorities authoritative to beforehand the bribery strategy and the defendants held in-person meetings with each different to sermon aspects of its execution. The defendants often discussed their efforts successful furtherance of the bribery scheme, including done an physics messaging application,” the US Attorney’s Office, Eastern District of New York said successful a statement.

What happened to Adani Group’s stocks?

Hindenburg Research, an activistic concern firm, published a study earlier this twelvemonth that accused the Adani Group of, among different things, artificially boosting the stock prices of its firms implicit respective decades by utilizing a web of overseas ammunition companies linked to Mr Adani’s household members.

Hindenburg argued that Mr Adani’s companies were collectively overvalued connected India’s banal marketplace by much than 80 per cent. The quality acceptable the banal marketplace terms of his institution into a freefall, with galore observers, who person agelong raised questions implicit the company’s valuations, raising concerns implicit the nationalist investments made successful the Adani Group.

Mr Adani’s nett worthy fell by $8.21bn to $84.4bn past amid the fallout from the allegations. It was reported astatine the clip that since 1 January, helium has mislaid $36.1bn from his nett worth.

Why Adani matters to the Indian taxpayer

The crisp autumn successful stocks of Adani Group raised concerns implicit the precocious vulnerability of the state-owned security company, the Life Insurance Corporation (LIC), and India’s largest lender State Bank of India (SBI), to Adani Group companies.

LIC, a institution connected which a ample fig of Indian citizens trust for their insurance, has invested heavy successful the Adani Group successful the past fewer years. The insurer accounts for implicit 98 per cent of the full security industry’s concern successful the Adani Group, raising fears that the monolithic losses that the conglomerate is suffering volition interaction the state-owned company.

Indian banks person an vulnerability of astir Rs 80,000 crore (£7.92bn) to the Adani Group, which is 38 per cent of the group’s full debt. One of the largest lenders, SBI, has defended itself by saying that its vulnerability to the Adani Group was good beneath the RBI’s Large Exposure Framework and was secured by cash-generating assets.

However, it did not specify the magnitude of vulnerability to the company. At the time, it was reported that successful 5 trading sessions, LIC’s banal saw an astir 15 per cent driblet portion SBI witnessed a 10 per cent decline.

What happens now

In Mr Adani’s case, the adjacent measurement pursuing the indictment is apt the “arraignment” stage. During this phase, a justice volition formally contiguous the charges and find whether bail volition beryllium granted to the accused. The defendants volition past determine whether to plead blameworthy oregon not guilty. If they plead not guilty, the lawsuit volition determination guardant to a assemblage trial.

Reuters reported that prosecutors are expected to guardant the apprehension warrants to overseas instrumentality enforcement agencies.

Reaction successful India

The absorption Congress Party has reiterated its request for a Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) probe into the assorted “scams” linked to the Adani Group.

In a station connected X, Congress communications in-charge Jairam Ramesh stated that the indictment “vindicates” the telephone for a JPC investigation. He besides urged the assignment of “a caller and credible” SEBI main to guarantee the completion of securities instrumentality investigations into the “Adani Mega Scam”.