Industrialist Gautam Adani indicted of bribery and fraud in the US

New Delhi | Desk: Industrialist Gautam Adani indicted of bribery and fraud in the US. A criminal case has also been filed against him.

Congress leader Jairam Ramesh reacting to the matter on social media wrote that the Congress party has been making such allegations since January 2023 and is demanding a JPC on matters related to Gautam Adani.

Trinamool Congress MP Mahua Moitra also took it to the social media stating, “US prosecutors have accused Gautam Adani of Rs 2200 crores.

The amount was given to Indian Officials to buy electricity at a rate higher than the market prices for benefit of Adani Renewable Energy.”

Renowned Advocate Prashant Bhushan has also tweeted on social media.

Writing on X, he stated, ‘Adani has forgotten America is not ruled by Modi where he could easily escape similar from ED, SEBI, AND CBI.’

Suspected Adani charged with bribery

According to the BBC, the criminal case filed in New York on Wednesday is a big setback for 62-year-old Gautam Adani, one of India’s richest men.

US prosecutors alleged that Adani and other senior officials of his company had agreed to pay Indian officials to get a contract for his renewable energy company.

The company was expected to make a profit of more than two billion dollars in the next 20 years from this contract.

The Adani Group has not yet responded to a request for comment on this subject.

According to the BBC, the Adani Group has been under suspicion in the US since 2023. That year a company named Hindenburg accused Adani of fraud.

Gautam Adani had completely rejected the company’s claim, but after that news came out, the shares of Adani Group companies fell sharply.

There were reports about this bribery investigation for several months.

Prosecutors have said that the investigation into this matter was started in the year 2022 itself.

It is alleged that their managers raised three billion dollars in the form of loans and bonds. Some of this money was also raised from American firms.

It is alleged that this money was raised against anti-bribery policies and through misleading statements.

Eastern District of New York Attorney Brion Peace has said in the charges, “As alleged, the accused had hatched a secret plan to bribe Indian government officials to obtain billions of dollars’ worth of contracts and lied about the bribery scheme as they were trying to raise capital from American and global investors.”

Brion Peace said, “My office is committed to eradicating corruption from the international market. Apart from this, investors have to be protected from those who want to make themselves rich at the cost of the credibility of our financial markets.”

Officials say that Adani himself met government officials on several occasions to further the bribery scheme.

Apart from Gautam Adani, there are seven other people against whom the US Attorney’s Office has filed charges in this case.

These seven people include Sagar R Adani, Vineet S Jain, Ranjit Gupta, Rupesh Agarwal, Deepak Malhotra, Saurabh Agarwal and Cyril Cabanis.

Adani is considered a close associate of India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Opposition parties in India have long been alleging that Adani has been getting benefits due to political connections. However, Adani has been rejecting these allegations.

In America, the President appoints the Attorney.

This matter has come up when Donald Trump won the election just a few weeks ago.

Trump has talked about radical changes in the US Justice Department.

Last week, Adani congratulated Trump on his victory on social media and announced an investment of $10 billion in America.