US charges Indian tycoon with bribery, fraud

What happened

The Justice Department Wednesday unsealed an indictment charging Gautam Adani, the billionaire founder of one of India's largest business conglomerates, with fraud tied to more than $250 million in bribes that he and associates allegedly paid Indian government officials in order to secure lucrative solar energy supply contracts. U.S. prosecutors and regulators said the secret bribery scheme defrauded U.S. investors in Adani's companies.

Who said what

Adani and his codefendants "orchestrated an elaborate scheme to bribe Indian government officials to secure contracts worth billions of dollars" for Adani Green Energy, then "lied about the bribery scheme" to "enrich themselves at the expense of the integrity of our financial markets," Brooklyn U.S. Attorney Breon Peace said in a statement. Adani and his associates allegedly kept meticulous records of "their bribes and offers to Indian officials using messaging apps, phones and PowerPoint presentations," The New York Times said. Prosecutors said Adani also met with government officials to personally advance the bribery scheme.

Adani, 62, was "once Asia's richest man — and briefly the world's second-richest person" — until 2023 fraud allegations by a Wall Street investigative firm "tarnished his net worth" and reputation, The Washington Post said. Still worth about $70 billion, he is "one of the few billionaires formally accused in the United States of criminal wrongdoing," Reuters said.

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What next?

None of the defendants were in U.S. custody, and Adani was believed to be in India, Peace said. The billionaire has longstanding close ties to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, and Indian opposition leader Jairam Ramesh Wednesday called for a parliamentary inquiry. U.S. indictment was "consistent with a long record of fraud and criminality carried out with impunity with the obvious protection of the prime minister," Ramesh said on X.