A New York court has indicted and issued an arrest warrant against Gautam Adani – Asia’s richest billionaire.
The business tycoon has interests ranging from ports and airports to renewable energy in India and around the world.
Gautam Adani, who India’s opposition calls a close ally of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, has been accused of conspiring to pay hundreds of millions of dollars to bribe Indian government officials to win solar energy contracts.
The case alleges Mr Adani’s company, Adani Green Energy Ltd and another firm secured a lucrative deal to sell 12 gigawatts of solar power to the Indian government – enough to power millions of homes and businesses.
Prosecutors say Adani, his nephew Sagar Adani, and six other associates, presented the project as promising to Wall Street investors, who invested billions into the project over five years.
Meanwhile, back in India, they were accused of arranging or paying $265 million in bribes to Indian officials to secure billions of dollars worth of contracts and financing.
The US Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of New York said the tycoon and his co-defendants sought to “obtain and finance massive state energy supply contracts through corruption and fraud at the expense of US investors,
US Attorney Breon Peace added the defendants “orchestrated an elaborate scheme” and wanted to “enrich themselves at the expense of the integrity of our financial markets.”
It further alleges that “on several occasions, Gautam S. Adani personally met with an Indian government official to advance the bribery scheme” and claims to have electronic and mobile phone evidence of this.
The criminal charges, filed on Wednesday in New York, are the latest blow to the 62-year-old Mr Adani, whose stock prices crashed after the news was released.
Immediately following the indictment, Adani Green Energy announced it would not proceed with a $600 million bond offering.
The group called the allegations baseless and stated that “possible legal recourse will be sought.”
Previously, US short-seller Hindenburg Research published a report accusing the Adani Group of brazen stock manipulation and accounting fraud, but this indictment represents the biggest setback for the group so far.
Indian opposition leader Rahul Gandhi has demanded the immediate arrest of Gautam Adani.
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