New Delhi. Industrialist Gautam Adani and his associates have not been charged under the US Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) in the alleged bribery case. Adani Green Energy Limited gave this information on Wednesday. The company said he has been charged with securities fraud and wire fraud, which includes the imposition of monetary penalties.
Adani Green Energy Limited (AGEL) said in a filing to the stock exchange that the US Department of Justice (US DOJ), in a filing in a New York court last week, has arrested Adani Group’s founding chairman Gautam Adani, his nephew Sagar and Vineet Jain under FCPA. No case relating to conspiracy to violate has been mentioned. Adani Group does business from ports to energy sector.
AGEL is accused of paying bribes worth US$265 million to Indian officials to win the solar power sales contract, which could have provided the company with a profit of US$2 billion over a 20-year period. The company said that the three AGEN executives have been charged only with conspiracy to commit securities fraud, conspiracy to commit wire fraud and securities fraud. Generally the penalties for such charges are less severe than for bribery. It said that a civil complaint has also been filed against Gautam and Sagar for violating the sections of the Securities Act and aiding and abetting Adani Green in violating the Act.
Adani Group had last week denied all the allegations and said that it would take all possible legal help for its defence.
According to the FCPA, it is a crime for a U.S.-linked company or person, a U.S. investor, or a joint venture, to pay or offer anything of value in exchange for favorable treatment to officials of another government. None of the Adani Group companies do business in the US, some of them like AGEL are funded by American investors.
According to the company’s information, “Gautam Adani, Sagar Adani and Vineet Jain have not been charged with any violation of the FCPA as set forth in the US Justice Department’s indictment or the US SEC’s civil complaint.” It said, “Three charges have been leveled against these directors in the criminal indictment. “They are charged with conspiracy to commit securities fraud, conspiracy to commit wire fraud, and securities fraud.” The US Justice Department and the US Securities and Exchange Commission have filed a criminal charge against Gautam Adani, Sagar Adani and Vineet Jain in the US District Court for the Eastern District of New York.
The company said, “No fine/punishment has been specified in the indictment.” Former Attorney General and senior lawyer Mukul Rohatgi supported the claims of Adani Group and said that according to his assessment there are five allegations. Adani and his associates have not been charged under charge numbers one or five, which are respectively? Charged with conspiracy to violate the FCPA and conspiracy to obstruct justice.
Adani and his associates face charges related to other securities and bonds. He said that the charge sheet (which is equivalent to the charge sheet filed in an Indian court) does not contain the name of even a single person who has been bribed. Senior Supreme Court advocate Mahesh Jethmalani also said that there are no allegations in the indictment against Adani or AGEN. Both these lawyers are part of Adani’s lobbying team.
AGEN said that as alleged in the civil complaint, the officers violated certain sections of the Securities Act 1933 and the Securities Act 1934 by aiding and abetting Adani Green Energy Limited’s violations of these Acts.
According to the company’s information, “The complaint requests an order directing the defendants to pay a civil monetary penalty, but does not say anything about the amount of the penalty.” The Justice Ministry has charged senior officials of Adani Green, Azure Power and CDPQ (Caise de dépôt et placement du Québec) with being part of a conspiracy to bribe Indian government officials to secure solar energy contracts from Indian government entities between 2020 and 2024. Is accused of. CDPQ is a Canadian institutional investor and the largest shareholder of Azure.
The ministry said that during this period, senior Adani Green officials conspired to misrepresent the company’s anti-bribery practices (to US-based investors and international financial institutions). He also hid from those investors and institutions the fact that he had paid bribes to Indian government officials to get green energy projects including solar power supply contracts. The purpose of hiding this was to obtain funding worth billions of dollars from these investors and institutions.
Of the five charges in the US Justice Ministry’s indictment, charge number 1 (written on page 42 of the indictment) does not name Adani and two other executives, which the Justice Ministry has described as a “conspiracy to violate the FCPA.”
Charge number 1 charges Ranjit Gupta, Cyril Cabanes, Saurabh Aggarwal, Deepak Malhotra and Rupesh Aggarwal.
Adani and his officials have also not been charged under charge number 5 (written on page 51 of the charge sheet), which the ministry has described as “conspiracy to obstruct justice”. Under charge number 5, the names of Cyril Cabanes, Saurabh Aggarwal, Deepak Malhotra and Rupesh Aggarwal are included.
Since Gautam Adani, Sagar Adani and Vineet Jain have not been charged under charges numbers one and five (conspiracy to violate the FCPA and conspiracy to obstruct justice, respectively)…they have been charged by US authorities with charges number two, Cannot be charged under counts three or four (conspiracy to commit securities fraud, conspiracy to commit wire fraud and securities fraud, respectively).
Since the US indictment, the market capitalization of Adani group companies has declined by approximately US $ 54 billion.
At the same time, international credit rating agencies including Moody’s and Fitch have reduced their outlook for many Adani Group companies.