India’s 2nd-wealthiest person charged by U.S. in $250 million bribery scheme

Gautam Adani, India’s second-richest person, has been charged by U.S. federal prosecutors with fraud on accusations that he and several alleged co-conspirators sought to pay $250 million in alleged bribes to Indian officials.

The U.S. Attorney’s Office in Brooklyn accused the mostly Indian executives Wednesday of obtaining funds from investors in the United States and other international lenders “on the basis of false and misleading statements” while they allegedly bribed Indian officials as they sought billions in solar-power contracts.

“The defendants orchestrated an elaborate scheme to bribe Indian government officials to secure contracts worth billions of dollars,” U.S. Attorney Breon Peace said in a release accompanying the indictment. The defendants then “lied about the bribery scheme as they sought to raise capital from U.S. and international investors.”

The scheme, according to prosecutors, occurred between 2020 and 2024.

Adani’s nephew, Sagar Adani, is also named as a defendant. The Securities and Exchange Commission separately announced charges of civil fraud Wednesday.

 Gautam Adani, worth approximately $70 billion according to Forbes, heads the Adani Group, an industrial conglomerate that holds stakes in logistics and energy units. The Adani Group itself is not named in the indictment, though the document refers to an unnamed “Indian renewable-energy company” that was “a portfolio company of an Indian conglomerate.”

The SEC complaint, meanwhile, directly names Adani Green Energy Ltd., a unit of Adani Group.

.Last year, a prominent short-seller, or a firm that bets on the price of another company’s stock to fall, accused Adani Group of fraud after highlighting alleged discrepancies in its official filings.

The findings from the short-seller, Hindenburg Research, caused Adani Group shares to tumble — but they ended up recovering following a favorable ruling related to the allegations by India’s Supreme Court.

Adani has also received direct support from Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, something India’s opposition party has highlighted.

Representatives for Adani could not immediately be reached for comment. 

“Since releasing our January 2023 report identifying Adani as the largest corporate con in history, we have never wavered in our view,” Hindenburg said in an emailed statement, “nor has Adani ever refuted our findings.”