Adani case: Why is the US case more serious than the Hindenburg report?
#News Bureau November 22,2024
The Adani Group has been rocked by major bribery allegations in the US. This big case has come to light after US-based short-seller Hindenburg Research accused the Adani Group of swindling Indian investors 22 months ago. At that time the allegations against the Adani Group were dismissed and the power center of India appeared to be standing with Adani. But this time the matter is much more serious than that. And the reasons for it are also special.
A mere check or jugaad of power on the US courts does not work from anywhere. Even if the Indian government wants to put pressure on the US court or seek favors by influencing the US administration, it will not get any help from anywhere. The new allegations filed in the US District Court, Brooklyn are much more serious as documents related to conversations and other material records show that the money raised from US investors was allegedly used to bribe government officials in India. The Hindenburg case was largely limited to allegations of alleged stock-manipulation, related transactions and stock manipulation.
Criminal cases have been filed in five cases in the Federal Court in Brooklyn, USA. That is, there are not just one or two cases against the Adani Group there.
In these cases, Adani Green Energy officials Gautam S. Adani, Sagar R. Adani and Vineet S. Jain have been accused of conspiring to defraud securities and underlying securities. They are also accused of fraud for their role in a multi-billion dollar scheme to obtain funds from American investors and global financial institutions on the basis of false and misleading statements. That is, not only have American investors been defrauded but there is also an allegation of high class fraud for obtaining funds or loans from international financial institutions.
Also charged in these cases are Ranjit Gupta and Rupesh Agarwal, former executives of a renewable-energy company with securities traded on the New York Stock Exchange, and Cyril Cabanes, Saurabh Agarwal and Deepak Malhotra, former employees of a Canadian company. In this case, institutional investors Gautam S. Adani, Sagar R. Adani and Vineet S. Jain are accused of conspiring to violate the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. That is, Gautam Adani’s name has come up directly in this case. Gautam Adani is the owner of the Adani Group in India.
The US court alleged that the accused executed a big scheme to bribe Indian government officials to get contracts for a power project worth billions of dollars. Gautam S. Adani, Sagar R. Adani and Vineet S. Jain lied about the bribe offer not only to American investors but also to international investors as they were trying to raise capital. In this indictment, these people have been accused of giving bribes of more than $ 250 million i.e. 2000 crores to Indian government officials, raising billions of dollars by lying to investors and banks and obstructing justice. That is, India’s richest person and a person included in the list of the world’s rich will face such a big charge of giving bribe.
Large scale power supply contracts were obtained through corruption and fraud at the expense of American investors.
The US court filing said, “These crimes were allegedly committed by senior officers and directors. The Criminal Division will continue to prosecute corrupt, deceptive and obstructive conduct that violates US law wherever it is committed in the world.” FBI Assistant Director-in-Charge Dennehy said in the court filing that “Gautam S. Adani and his seven other business executives allegedly bribed Indian government officials to benefit their business. Adani and other accused also defrauded investors by raising capital based on false statements about bribery and corruption, while other accused allegedly attempted to conceal the bribery conspiracy by obstructing the government’s investigation.” The FBI said that even if the investigation in this case has to be done internationally, its mission will continue.
The US court was told that on several occasions, Gautam S. Adani personally met an official of the Indian government to further the bribery scheme. The other accused then held personal meetings with each other to negotiate various aspects of implementing it. It said that the accused often discussed their efforts to further the bribery scheme, including through electronic messaging applications.
The surprising thing told to the US court was that these accused also kept the evidence of bribing Indian officials. That is, they kept the record of the person to whom the bribe was given. The FBI has tracked this.
Sagar R. Adani used his cellular phone to track the specific details of the bribes paid and given to government officials.
Vineet S. Jain used his cellular phone to photograph a document that detailed various amounts of bribes.
Roopesh Agarwal prepared several analyses of the bribes given using PowerPoint and Excel and distributed them to other accused. In which details were given of various options for giving and hiding bribe payments.
According to court filings, after the promise of bribes to Indian government officials, between July 2021 and February 2022, the business of Adani Group’s power distribution companies spread to the states and regions of Odisha, Jammu and Kashmir, Tamil Nadu, Chhattisgarh and Andhra Pradesh. Power sales agreements (PSAs) were entered into with Solar Energy Corporation of India (SECI) under the manufacturing linked project.
The court filing said Andhra Pradesh power distribution companies entered into a PSA with SECI on or around December 1, 2021. According to which the state agreed to purchase about seven gigawatts of solar power, the largest amount by any Indian state or territory to date.
The court filing said Andhra Pradesh power distribution companies entered into a PSA with SECI on or around December 1, 2021. According to which the state agreed to purchase about seven gigawatts of solar power, the largest amount by any Indian state or territory to date.
