Adani Green Energy has decided to postpone its planned USD-denominated bond offerings in light of the recent criminal charges filed against Adani Group Chairman Gautam Adani and other senior executives in connection with an alleged bribery scheme.
In a filing to the stock exchange on Thursday, the company stated, “The United States Department of Justice (DOJ) and the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) have issued a criminal indictment and a civil complaint, respectively, against our Board members, Gautam Adani and Sagar Adani. The DOJ has also included Board member Vneet Jaain in the criminal indictment. Given these developments, our subsidiaries have decided to halt the proposed USD-denominated bond offerings.”
The charges, filed by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of New York, involve a five-count criminal indictment against Gautam Adani, Sagar R. Adani, and Vneet S. Jaain for conspiring to commit securities fraud and wire fraud as part of a multi-billion-dollar scheme to mislead U.S. investors and global financial institutions.
The indictment also implicates former executives of a renewable energy company, Ranjit Gupta and Rupesh Agarwal, as well as former employees of a Canadian institutional investor, including Cyril Cabanes, Saurabh Agarwal, and Deepak Malhotra, for allegedly violating the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act in relation to the bribery scheme.
U.S. Attorney Breon Peace stated, “The defendants orchestrated a scheme to bribe Indian government officials to secure contracts worth billions of dollars. In doing so, they misrepresented their actions to investors, all while raising capital from U.S. and international markets based on false and misleading statements.”
The indictment also accuses the executives of obstructing investigations by the FBI, DOJ, and SEC, further compounding the alleged offenses.
The U.S. Attorney’s office has stressed that these charges are allegations, and the individuals involved are presumed innocent until proven guilty. The investigation is being led by the FBI’s Corporate, Securities, and Commodities Fraud and International Corruption Units. The case is being prosecuted by the Business and Securities Fraud Section of the U.S. Attorney’s Office and the Criminal Division’s Fraud Section.