NEW YORK: Indian billionaire Gautam Adani has been charged with scam in the United States, which has alleged him of orchestrating a $250m bribery scheme and concealing it to raise money in the United States.
The close ally of Hindu nationalist Prime Minister Narendra Modi is alleged to have agreed to pay over $250 million in bribes to Indian officials for profitable solar energy supply contracts.
Gautam Adani has been charged with paying hundreds of millions of dollars of bribes and hiding the payments from investors, US prosecutors stated on Wednesday.
AFP cited Deputy Assistant Attorney General Lisa Miller as saying, “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.”
BBC reported that the criminal charges, filed on Wednesday in New York, are the latest blow to Adani, one of India’s richest men, whose business empire extends from airports and ports to renewable energy.
In the indictment statement, prosecutors alleged the Indian billionaire and other senior executives had agreed to the payments to Indian officials to win contracts for his renewable energy firm likely to yield over $2bn in profits over two decades.
READ ALSO: China Calls for Restraint After Ukraine Fired US-Supplied Missiles on Russia
According to prosecutors, this scheme was concealed from American investors, who poured billions of dollars into the firm over five years.
Adani and his associates are also accused of presenting the project as legitimate while secretly engaging in corruption to win government financing and contracts. Deputy Assistant Attorney General Lisa Miller termed the actions as a ploy to “attain and finance massive state energy supply contracts through fraud and corruption at the expense of US investors.”
According to AFP, shares in India’s Adani Enterprises slumped 10 percent at Thursday’s open following US prosecutors charged billionaire industrialist Adani with paying hundreds of millions of dollars in bribes and hiding the payments from investors.
AFP reported with a business empire spanning coal, airports, cement and media, the Adani Group has been rocked in recent years by corporate fraud allegations and a stock crash.
Last year the conglomerate saw $150 billion wiped from its market value last year after a bombshell report by short-seller Hindenburg Research accused it of “brazen” corporate fraud.
