Billionaire Gautam Adani Charged For Alleged $250 Million Bribery Scheme
by Antonio Pequeño IV · ForbesTopline
Indian billionaire Gautam Adani—the world’s 22nd-richest person—was indicted in New York on Wednesday, in connection with what prosecutors called a large-scale bribery scheme that sought to pay hundreds of millions of dollars to Indian officials to secure lucrative government energy supply contracts.
Key Facts
The Justice Department charged Adani and other executives of the Indian Energy Company with conspiracy to commit securities and wire fraud and substantive securities fraud for their alleged roles in the scheme, which tried to get government officials to purchase energy at above-market rates.
The scheme sought to pay $250 million in bribes to Indian government officials in order to secure energy contracts worth billions of dollars, according to the Justice Department.
The Securities and Exchange Commission also filed a complaint against Adani, alleging he violated the antifraud provisions within federal securities laws.
Prosecutors specifically accused Adani and other executives of raising capital through false and misleading statements, allegedly lying to U.S. investors and banks to raise billions of dollars.
Adani allegedly raised more than $750 million during the scheme, $175 million of which came from U.S. investors, according to the SEC.
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Forbes Valuation
We estimate Adani’s net worth at $69.8 billion, making him the 22nd-richest person in the world, immediately behind L’Oreal heir Francoise Bettencourt Meyers ($70.8 billion).
Surprising Fact
The Adani Group was India’s second-biggest cement producer in 2023 and generated $38 billion in revenues in 2022, employing more than 26,000 people that year. The firm’s assets include India’s busiest shipping port, transmission lines serving more than 3 million customers and eight airports.
Key Background
The indictment against Adani comes more than a year after activist investment firm Hindenburg Research published a report accusing Adani and his companies of large-scale fraud and stock manipulation. The Adani Group denied the report, which said Adani and his older brother Vinod pulled “the largest con in corporate history” and disclosed Hindenburg’s short position against Adani Group companies. The report cut $65 billion from Adani’s net worth, which once placed him as the world’s second-richest person behind Tesla chief Elon Musk. It also shaved $112 billion of market value off his conglomerate’s companies, which span from airports and energy to weapons and infrastructure. Adani, 62, is a self-made billionaire, having been a college dropout who first did business in commodities and ports. He purchased a majority stake in Mumbai International Airport in 2020, crowning the Adani Group as India’s largest airport operator.