How Indian billionaire Gautam Adani’s alleged bribery scheme took off and unraveled
In June of 2020, a renewable energy company owned by Indian billionaire Gautam Adani won what it called, opens new tab the single largest solar development bid ever awarded: an agreement to supply 8 gigawatts of electricity to a state-owned power company.
But there was a problem. Local power companies did not want to pay the prices the state company was offering, jeopardizing the deal, according to U.S. authorities. To save the deal, Adani allegedly decided to bribe local officials to persuade them to buy the electricity.
That allegation is at the heart of U.S. criminal and civil charges unsealed on Wednesday against Adani, who is not currently in U.S. custody and is believed to be in India. His company, Adani Group, said the charges were “baseless” and that it would seek “all possible legal recourse.”
The alleged hundreds of millions of dollars in bribes promised to local Indian officials caught the attention of the U.S. Justice Department and Securities and Exchange Commission as Adani’s companies were raising funds from U.S.-based investors in several transactions starting in 2021.
This account of how the alleged scheme unfolded is drawn from federal prosecutors’ 54-page criminal indictment, opens new tab of Adani and seven of his associates and two parallel civil SEC complaints, opens new tab, which extensively cite electronic messages between the scheme’s alleged participants.
In early 2020, the Solar Energy Corporation of India awarded Adani Green Energy (ADNA.NS), opens new tab and another company, Azure Power Global (AZREF.PK), opens new tab, contracts for a 12-gigawatt solar energy project, expected to yield billions of dollars in revenue for both companies, according to the indictment.
It was a major step forward for Adani Green Energy, run by Adani’s nephew, Sagar Adani. Up until that point, the company had only earned roughly $50 million in its history and had yet to turn a profit, according to the SEC complaint.
