Gautam Adani faces US charges over an alleged $265 million bribery scheme tied to solar contracts, with prosecutors also citing $3 billion raised through concealed corruption.
Gautam Adani, the billionaire chair of Indian conglomerate Adani Group and one of the world’s richest people, has been indicted in New York over his role in an alleged multibillion-dollar bribery and fraud scheme, U.S. prosecutors said on Wednesday.
Authorities said Adani and seven other defendants, including his nephew Sagar Adani, agreed to pay about $265 million in bribes to Indian government officials to obtain solar energy supply contracts expected to yield $2 billion of profit over 20 years.
According to an indictment, some conspirators referred privately to Gautam Adami with the code names “Numero uno” and “the big man,” while Sagar Adani allegedly used his cellphone to track specifics about the bribes.
The case involves alleged violations of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, a U.S. anti-bribery law.
Adani Group did not immediately respond to requests for comment outside business hours in India, where the charges were announced early Thursday morning.
India’s embassy in Washington did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Lawyers for the defendants could not immediately be identified.
Gautam Adani, 62, is worth $69.8 billion according to Forbes magazine, making him the world’s 22nd richest person and India’s second-richest person behind Reliance Industries Chair Mukesh Ambani.
Among the other defendants are Ranjit Gupta and Rupesh Agarwal, respectively a former chief executive and former chief strategy and commercial officer of Azure Power Global, and Cyril Cabanes, a director there.
The other defendants, as well as Cabanes, also worked for a Canadian institutional investor, prosecutors said.
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