The figure in the U.S. indictment is $250m (£198m). Prosecutors allege that Gautam Adani, a 62-year-old Indian billionaire, orchestrated a bribery scheme of that scale and then hid it to raise money in the United States.
The indictment
The criminal charges were filed on 20 November 2024 in New York. They accuse the tycoon and senior executives of agreeing to payments to Indian officials to win contracts for his renewable energy company. Those contracts were expected to yield more than $2bn in profits over 20 years. Apart from Mr Adani, seven other defendants were named, including his nephew.
“As alleged, the defendants orchestrated an elaborate scheme to bribe Indian government officials to secure contracts worth billions of dollars and… lied about the bribery scheme as they sought to raise capital from U.S. and international investors,” U.S. Attorney Breon Peace said in a statement announcing the charges.
On several occasions Mr Adani met personally with government officials to advance the scheme, officials said. BBC News reported that prosecutors said the U.S. began investigating the company in 2022 and found the inquiry obstructed. Executives raised $3bn in loans and bonds, including from U.S. firms, on the backs of false and misleading statements tied to anti-bribery practices and the bribery probe.
The Adani Group called the allegations “baseless” and said, “All possible legal recourse will be sought.” Shares of Adani Enterprises, the flagship firm, closed down 22% on Thursday. Adani Green Energy, the company at the centre of the allegations, said it would not proceed with a $600m bond offering.
Past scrutiny and new pressure
The conglomerate has been under a cloud since 2023, when short seller Hindenburg Research accused it of decades of “brazen” stock manipulation and accounting fraud. Mr Adani denied those claims, which set off a major market sell-off and an investigation by India’s market regulator, the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi). Hindenburg later accused Sebi chief Madhabi Puri Buch of links to off-shore funds used by the group. Both Ms Buch and the group denied that.
The filing came just weeks after Donald Trump won the U.S. presidential election. Mr Adani had congratulated Trump on social media and said the previous week he would invest $10bn in the United States.
Kenya’s president cancelled major deals with the Adani Group.
Michael Kugelman, director of the South Asia Institute at the Wilson Center, called the charges a “body blow”. U.S. investment firm GQG Partners LLC, which has invested nearly $10bn in the group, said it was monitoring the charges and may take “appropriate” actions for its portfolios. Moody’s Ratings called the indictment a “credit negative” for the group’s companies.
Political fallout in India
The case set off a political storm. Mr Adani is a close ally of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and has long faced opposition claims that he benefited from those political ties, which he denies. Opposition leader Rahul Gandhi demanded that Mr Adani be arrested and that Ms Buch be removed as Sebi chief. He accused Modi of protecting the businessman. Modi and the government had not commented.
Sambit Patra, a leader of the governing Bharatiya Janata Party, said it was up to the Adani Group to “issue a statement and defend itself”. “The law will take its course,” he said.
Opposition parties had long demanded a joint parliamentary investigation into the Hindenburg allegations. They said they would raise the issue when the winter session of parliament began the following week.
