US indicts Adani in $265mn bribery case, issues warrant

US prosecutors indicted Adani Group companies, its chief Gautam Adani and seven others for allegedly orchestrating a $265 million (₹2,029 crore) scheme to bribe Indian officials in order to secure green energy supply deals, plunging the multinational empire into a fresh crisis and triggering a fierce political confrontation between opposition parties led by the Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

The indictment, which sent Adani Group stocks tumbling up to 23% and wiping out over ₹2 lakh crore ($27 billion) in market value on Thursday, charges the tycoon and his associates with securities fraud, wire fraud conspiracy and violating anti-corruption laws. Arrest warrants were issued in the US for both Gautam Adani and his nephew Sagar Adani, also the executive director in Adani Green.

The Adani Group strongly denied the allegations, calling them "baseless" and vowing to "seek all possible legal recourse".

"This indictment alleges schemes to pay over $250 million in bribes to Indian government officials, to lie to investors and banks to raise billions of dollars, and to obstruct justice," stated Lisa H Miller, the deputy assistant attorney general for the for the US Justice Department's Criminal Division, according to a statement. "These offences were allegedly committed by senior executives and directors to obtain and finance massive state energy supply contracts through corruption and fraud at the expense of US investors," Miller added.

Essentially, the charges are multi-fold: orchestrating $265 million in bribes, violating US anti-corruption laws, and then fraudulently raising over $175 million in bond sales from US investors while hiding these bribes, breaking securities laws.

According to court documents, between 2020 and 2024, Adani executives and those from another company, Azure Power, collaborated to pay bribes to Indian government officials in five states Andhra Pradesh, Odisha, Tamil Nadu, Chhattisgarh and Jammu & Kashmir-to obtain solar energy supply contracts projected to generate more than $2 billion in profits over 20 years.

The charges allege that Gautam Adani personally met with an "Indian government official" to advance the scheme, without naming who this person was. A separate SEC suit identified this person as the then Andhra Pradesh chief minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy.