‘Incorrect and reckless reporting’: Adani Group refutes allegations against Gautam Adani, his nephew Sagar Adani and Vneet Jaain, says no charges for FCPA violation

"Media articles which state that certain of our directors namely Gautam Adani, Sagar Adani and Vneet Jaain have been charged with violation(s) of the US Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) in the indictment. Such statements are incorrect," said the statement by Adani Green Energy Ltd.

Amidst continuous attacks by the opposition parties over the indictment of Adani Group chairman Gautam Adani, his nephew Sagar Adani and over allegations of bribery in a New York district court, Adani Group refuted the misleading reporting done in media and by some political parties. Speaking on the allegations made by the US Department of Justice and the US Securities and Exchange Commission, the conglomerate said that the charges have been reportedly in an incorrect manner.

In a filing with the stock exchanges on Wednesday (27^th November), Adani Green Energy Limited (AGEL) cited the news reporting on the alleged bribery and corruption charges against Adani Officials as ‘Incorrect’.

“Media articles which state that certain of our directors namely Gautam Adani, Sagar Adani and Vneet Jaain have been charged with violation(s) of the US Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) in the indictment. Such statements are incorrect,” said the statement by Adani Green Energy Ltd. “Gautam Adani, Sagar Adani and Vneet Jaain have not been charged with any violation of the FCPA in the counts set forth in the indictment of the US DOJ or civil complaint of the US SEC,” it added.

In a legal indictment, count refers to individual charges against a defendant. The filing states that the DoJ Indictment, which has five counts, does not have any mention of and has excluded Gautam Adani, Sagar Adani or Vneet Jaain in Count One: ”Conspiracy to Violate the FCPA’; neither does it have mention of these three names in Count Five: “Conspiracy to obstruct justice” The Count One of the indictment, which refers to the corruption and bribery charges, only involves Ranjit Gupta, Cyril Cabanes, Saurabh Agarwal, Deepak Malhotra and Rupesh Agarwal of Azure Power and CDPQ (Caisse de depot et placement du Quebec – a Canadian institutional investor and Azure’s largest shareholder). No Adani official has been named by DoJ under this. However, flawed understanding of the DoJ indictment by various media—foreign as well as Indian— has led to incorrect and reckless reporting of Adani Directors of being charged with corruption and bribery under or of all five counts by the US DoJ and SEC.”

The statement says that Adani officials are named in charges only for Count 2: “Alleged securities fraud conspiracy”, Count 3:” Alleged wire fraud conspiracy”, and Count “Alleged securities fraud.”

The AGEL said that the US DoJ Indictment offers no evidence that bribes were paid by Adani executives to Indian government officials, the indictment and the complaint solely rest on claims that bribes were promised or discussed.  “All of this is based on likelihoods and hearsay from former employees of Azure Power and CDPQ places the US DoJ’s and US SEC’s action against Adani on dangerously shaky ground – both morally and legally,” it stated adding that the “ill-founded” US action and “reckless false reporting” have led to significant repercussions for the Indian conglomerate, such as international project cancellations, financial market impact and sudden examination from strategic partners, investors and the public. On the impact of the US DOJ indictment, the AGEL said that the Adani Group has suffered a loss of nearly US$55 Bn in its market capitalization across its 11 listed companies.

OpIndia reported earlier, how the opposition parties and their supportive ecosystem have constantly been attacking Gautam Adani and even Prime Minister Narendra Modi on the basis of bribery allegations levelled by a US attorney. Congress leader Rahul Gandhi has even demanded the arrest of the Adani Group chairman. However, the indictment by the Department of Justice has accused Gautam Adani of bribing Indian government officials in various state governments between the years 2021 to 2022, of which not a single state was ruled by Modi’s Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP). In fact, all the states mentioned in the indictment document were ruled by the anti-BJP parties at that time. 

Speaking about the Adani indictment, former Attorney General and senior counsel Mukul Rohatgi said that neither in count 1 nor in count 5 is Gautam Adani or his nephew have been charged. Rohatgi said that count number 1 of the indictment is against certain other persons minus the two Adanis. It includes some of their officers and one foreign person. Furthermore, the senior counsel added that the indictment alleged that Adanis bribed Indian officials in Indian entities relating to the supply and purchase of power, however, it does not name any official or any department which the Adanis supposedly bribed.

“I have gone through this indictment by the US court. My assessment is that there are 5 charges or 5 counts. Neither in count 1 nor in count 5 is Mr. Adani or his nephew charged. Count number 1 of the indictment is against certain other persons minus the two Adanis. It includes some of their officers and one foreign person…The first allegation is that there is a conspiracy to violate the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act framed by the US Parliament in that the Adanis are not named, their officers may be named. There are 2 or 3 other counts relating to securities and bonds. In those 3 counts, the Adanis and others are named…This is a chargesheet alleging that these people, including Adanis have bribed Indian officials in Indian entities relating to the supply and purchase of power, but I do not find a single name or a single detail in the chargesheet as to who has been bribed, in what manner has he been bribed and the official belongs to such and such department. This charge sheet is completely silent, so I don’t know how one can respond to this kind of chargesheets,” Rohatgi said.