BILLIONAIRE Gautam Adani has been charged by US prosecutors for allegedly being part of a scheme to pay USD 265 million (about Rs 2,200 crore) bribe to Indian officials in exchange of favourable terms for solar power contracts. Adani, India’s second-richest man, and seven others including his nephew Sagar have been charged with paying bribes to unidentified officials of State Governments in Andhra Pradesh and Odisha to buy expensive solar power, potentially earning more than USD 2 billion profit over 20 years. Adani group had in 2021 won a bid to supply 8,000 megawatt (8 GW) of power generated using locally manufactured solar cell and modular plants but could not meet the price expectations of state governments buying such electricity. Adani is alleged to have met the then Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister in 2021, following which the state government agreed to buy 7,000 MW of power.

 

Andhra Pradesh officials were paid at the rate of Rs 25 lakh per MW, totalling Rs 1,750 crore (USD 200 million) for 7,000 MW the state ended up purchasing. Odisha purchased 500 MW of power through the same route. “Andhra Pradesh bribe payment was approximately USD 200 million,” the court document showed. Odisha purchased 500 MW of power. The document also stated that central government entity Solar Energy Corporation of India Limited (SECI), which originally awarded the solar manufacturing linked power tender, entered into the sale agreements with Andhra Pradesh, Odisha, Chhattisgarh and Tamil Nadu between July 2021 and December 2021. The indictment also names New Delhi-based Azure Power, which had won a similar tender for supply of 4 GW. But when Azure could not cough up its one-third share of the bribe money paid to the states for buying expensive power, Adani made the firm give up part of its contract, which was then taken over by Adani through SECI.

 

Adani has been charged with bribery and securities fraud in two separate cases brought by US authorities -- a criminal indictment by the US Department of Justice in a New York court that charges him and seven others including his nephew Sagar. Separately, the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has charged Gautam and Sagar Adani and an Azure Power executive with “violating the anti-fraud provisions of the federal securities laws”. While the Adani group denied all charges and termed them as baseless, it scrapped a USD 600 million bond issue by Adani Green Energy Ltd. The issue was oversubscribed three times hours before the indictment. “In light of these developments, our subsidiaries have presently decided not to proceed with the proposed USD denominated bond offerings,” Adani Green Energy said in a stock exchange filing. “The allegations made by the US Department of Justice and the US Securities and Exchange Commission against directors of Adani Green are baseless and denied,” the group spokesperson said in a statement, adding it will take all possible legal recourse. Adani group stocks tanked in Mumbai trade.

 

Ten listed firms of the group lost about USD 26 billion (Rs 2.19 lakh crore) in market value -- more than double of what the conglomerate had lost when US short seller Hindenburg brought out a damning report in January 2023. Rahul Gandhi seeks Adani’s immediate arrest, probe against SEBI chief: LEADER of Opposition Rahul Gandhi on Thursday demanded immediate arrest of Gautam Adani after the billionaire industrialist was charged in the US for alleged bribery and fraud. Addressing a press conference here hours after the US prosecutors charged Adani and associates for allegedly paying USD 250 million bribe to Indian officials, the Congress leader said it is now pretty clear and established in the US that the businessman has broken Indian as well as American laws.

 

The Adani group denied the charges, saying the allegations by US prosecutors are baseless and the conglomerate is compliant with all laws. It also said that all possible legal recourse will be sought. Rahul, Cong tried since 2002 to target Modi’s image, PM’s credibility remains high: BJP THE BJP on Thursday slammed Rahul Gandhi’s attack on Prime Minister Narendra Modi over the US prosecutors’ indictment of Gautam Adani on alleged bribery and fraud charges as part of his long-running efforts to target its leader and noted that none of the four states named in American courts had a BJP government. Addressing a press conference, BJP spokesperson and MP Sambit Patra steered clear of the US Justice Department’s allegations against the infrastructure behemoth, saying it is for the company to give an explanation and defend itself. “Law will take its own course,” he said while keeping the focus on Gandhi’s allegations against the prime minister and the BJP government at the Centre. Patra also pointed out that four states -- Andhra Pradesh, Odisha, Chhattisgarh Tamil Nadu -- where government functionaries were allegedly paid bribes of over USD 250 million to secure favourable deals, were ruled by non-BJP parties during the period mentioned in the indictment. While the Congress and its ally were in power in Chhattisgarh and Tamil Nadu, the YSR Congress and the BJD, two regional parties unaffiliated to either the ruling or the opposition alliance nationally, ruled Andhra Pradesh and Odisha then, respectively.

 

The BJP spokesperson cited investments of tens of thousands of crores of rupees by the Adani group, the ports-to-energy conglomerate, in states ruled by the Congress and its allies to question Rahul Gandhi over his party’s dealings with the behemoth when he calls its boss Gautam Adani “corrupt”. Patra claimed that Gandhi’s allegations on Thursday fitted the pattern of him, his mother Sonia Gandhi and the Congress trying to tarnish Modi’s image since 2002, a reference to the communal riots in Gujarat when the BJP leader was the state’s chief minister, but in vain.