US prosecutors charge Gautam Adani and others in alleged bribery case

New York, Nov 21: A five-count criminal indictment has been unsealed in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York, charging prominent Indian executives including Chairman of the Adani Group Gautam Adani by linking them to an alleged bribery and fraud scheme, Reuters reported citing US prosecutors.

According to the U.S. Attorney's Office, Eastern District of New York, "A five-count criminal indictment was unsealed in federal court charging Gautam Adani, Sagar R. Adani, and Vneet S. Jaain, with conspiracies to commit securities and wire fraud and substantive securities 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 indictment also charges Ranjit Gupta and Rupesh Agarwal, former executives of a renewable-energy company with securities that had traded on the New York Stock Exchange (the U.S. Issuer), and Cyril Cabanes, Saurabh Agarwal and Deepak Malhotra, former employees of a Canadian institutional investor, with conspiracy to violate the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act in connection with the alleged bribery scheme.

"As alleged, the defendants orchestrated an elaborate scheme to bribe Indian government officials to secure contracts worth billions of dollars and Gautam S. Adani, Sagar R. Adani and Vneet S. Jaain lied about the bribery scheme as they sought to raise capital from U.S. and international investors," stated United States Attorney Breon Peace.

Breon Peace further alleged that the people named in the indictment undermined the integrity of international financial markets and defrauded U.S. and global investors.

"The business executives allegedly bribed the Indian government to finance lucrative contracts designed to benefit their businesses. Adani and other defendants also defrauded investors by raising capital on the basis of false statements about bribery and corruption, while still other defendants allegedly attempted to conceal the bribery conspiracy by obstructing the government's investigation," stated FBI Assistant Director in Charge James Dennehy.

The indictment also accuses the executive of obstructing investigations by the FBI, Department of Justice (DOJ), and Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

The US Attorney's office says that the charges in the indictment are allegations and the defendants are presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty.

The investigation was conducted by the FBI New York's Corporate, Securities and Commodities Fraud and International Corruption Units.

The government's case is being handled by the Business and Securities Fraud Section of the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of New York and the Criminal Division's Fraud Section.

There has been no response so far from the office of Gautam Adani or others named in the indictment.