Indian billionaire Gautam Adani has been charged with fraud in the US, accusing him of orchestrating a $250m (£198m) bribery scheme and concealing it to raise money in the US.
The criminal charges, filed Wednesday in New York, are the latest for the 62-year-old Mr. Adani, one of the world’s richest men, whose business empire stretches from ports and airports to renewable energy.
In the charges brought against them, prosecutors allege the tycoon and other senior officials agreed to pay off Indian officials to win contracts for his renewable energy company that is expected to generate more than $2bn in profits over 20 years.
The Adani Group denied the allegations, calling them “baseless”.
“All legal means will be sought,” the statement said.
Shares of Adani Group companies fell more than 10% in trading on Thursday morning and the group lost more than $20bn in market capitalization. Adani Green Energy, which is the company at the center of these allegations, has also said it will not proceed with the $600m bond offering.
The conglomerate has been operating under the cloud since 2023, when US short seller Hindenburg Research published a report accusing it of decades of “unprecedented” fraud and accounting fraud.
The claims, which Mr Adani denies, sparked a massive market selloff and an investigation by India’s securities and exchange board of India (Sebi).
Later, the Hindenburg too the suspect Sebi chief Madhabi Puri Buch of having links with offshore funds used by the Adani group – both Ms Buch and the group have denied this.
Reports of a bribery investigation into the company have been circulating for months. Prosecutors said the US began investigating the company in 2022, only to find that the investigation had been compromised.
They allege that executives raised $3bn in loans and bonds, including to US firms, as a result of false and misleading statements related to the company’s anti-bribery procedures and policies, and reports of bribery investigations.
“As alleged, the defendants orchestrated an extensive scheme to bribe Indian government officials to obtain multibillion-dollar contracts and… lied about the bribery scheme as they sought to raise money from American and foreign investors,” US Attorney Breon Peace said. statement announcing the charges.
“My office is committed to eradicating corruption in international markets and protecting investors from those who want to enrich themselves by damaging the integrity of our financial markets,” he added.
On several occasions, Mr Adani met in person with government officials to further the bribery scheme, officials said.
Michael Kugelman, director of the South Asia Institute at the Wilson Center, called the charges a “body blow” to the government.
“It’s been almost two years since Mr. Adani tried to repair his image, again [trying] to show that those previous fraud allegations made by the Hindenburg group were not true, and that his company and his businesses were actually doing well,” he told the BBC’s Business Today.
But it may be difficult for billionaires, he said, to “extinguish” the allegations made by American authorities.
US investment firm GQG Partners LLC, which has invested nearly $10bn in Adani Group, said it was “monitoring costs” and may take “appropriate” steps in its portfolio.
Moody’s Ratings said the charges were “no debt” for the group’s companies.
“Our main objective when we examine the Adani Group is that the companies of this group are able to get money to meet their needs of getting money and management methods,” he said.
This issue is also likely to create a political storm in India.
Mr Adani is a close friend of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi. He has been facing allegations from opposition politicians for a long time that he has benefited from his political connections, which he denies.
Opposition leader Rahul Gandhi demanded in a press conference that Mr Adani be arrested and Ms Buch removed from her position as Sebi chief.
The positions of US Attorneys in the US are appointed by the president. The filing comes a few weeks after Donald Trump won the election to the White House, promising to overhaul the US Department of Justice.
Last week on social media, Mr Adani congratulated Trump on his election victory and promised to invest $10bn in the US.
Additional reports by Nikhil Inamdar and Arsana Shukla in Mumbai
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