CEO Morning Brief

Full US DOJ Statement on Billionaire Gautam Adani’s Indictment on Bribery Charges

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Publish date: Fri, 22 Nov 2024, 08:35 PM
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TheEdge CEO Morning Brief

Billionaire chairman of conglomerate and seven other senior business executives indicted in connection with scheme to pay hundreds of millions of dollars in bribes and conceal bribery scheme from US investors

Wednesday, November 20, 2024

For Immediate Release
US Attorney's Office, Eastern District of New York

More than US$250 million in bribes promised to Indian Government officials to secure solar energy contracts

A five-count criminal indictment was unsealed today in federal court in Brooklyn charging Gautam S Adani, Sagar R. Adani and Vneet S Jaain, executives of an Indian renewable-energy company (the Indian Energy Company), with conspiracies to commit securities and wire fraud and substantive securities fraud for their roles in a multi-billion-dollar scheme to obtain funds from US investors and global financial institutions on the basis of false and misleading statements. The indictment also charges Ranjit Gupta and Rupesh Agarwal, former executives of a renewable-energy company with securities that had traded on the New York Stock Exchange (the US Issuer), and Cyril Cabanes, Saurabh Agarwal and Deepak Malhotra, former employees of a Canadian institutional investor, with conspiracy to violate the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, in connection with a bribery scheme also perpetrated by Gautam S Adani, Sagar R Adani and Vneet S Jaain, involving one of the world’s largest solar energy projects.

Breon Peace, United States Attorney for the Eastern District of New York, Lisa H Miller, Deputy Assistant Attorney General for the Justice Department’s Criminal Division, and James E Dennehy, Assistant Director in Charge, Federal Bureau of Investigation, New York Field Office (FBI), announced the charges.

“As alleged, the defendants orchestrated an elaborate scheme to bribe Indian government officials to secure contracts worth billions of dollars and Gautam S Adani, Sagar R Adani and Vneet S Jaain lied about the bribery scheme, as they sought to raise capital from US and international investors,” stated United States Attorney Peace. “My Office is committed to rooting out corruption in the international marketplace and protecting investors from those who seek to enrich themselves at the expense of the integrity of our financial markets.”

“This indictment alleges schemes to pay over US$250 million in bribes to Indian government officials, to lie to investors and banks to raise billions of dollars, and to obstruct justice,” stated Deputy Assistant Attorney General Miller. “These offenses 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. The Criminal Division will continue to aggressively prosecute corrupt, deceptive, and obstructive conduct that violates US law, no matter where in the world it occurs.”

“Gautam S Adani and seven other business executives allegedly bribed the Indian government to finance lucrative contracts designed to benefit their businesses. Adani and other defendants also defrauded investors by raising capital on the basis of false statements about bribery and corruption, while still other defendants allegedly attempted to conceal the bribery conspiracy by obstructing the government’s investigation,” stated FBI Assistant Director in Charge Dennehy. “The FBI maintains its steadfast mission to expose all corrupt agreements, especially with international governments, and protect investors from related harm.”

As alleged in the indictment, between approximately 2020 and 2024, the defendants agreed to pay more than US$250 million in bribes to Indian government officials to obtain lucrative solar energy supply contracts with the Indian government, which were projected to generate more than US$2 billion in profits after tax over an approximately 20-year period (the Bribery Scheme). On several occasions, Gautam S. Adani personally met with an Indian government official to advance the Bribery Scheme, and the defendants held in-person meetings with each other to discuss aspects of its execution. The defendants frequently discussed their efforts in furtherance of the Bribery Scheme, including through an electronic messaging application. The defendants also extensively documented their corrupt efforts: for example, Sagar R Adani used his cellular phone to track specific details of the bribes offered and promised to government officials; Vneet S Jaain used his cellular phone to photograph a document summarizing various bribe amounts the US Issuer owed the Indian Energy Company for its respective portion of the bribes; and Rupesh Agarwal prepared and distributed to other defendants multiple analyses using PowerPoint and Excel that summarized various options for paying and concealing bribe payments (Bribery Analyses).

During this same period, Gautam S Adani, Sagar R Adani and Vneet S Jaain allegedly conspired to misrepresent the Indian Energy Company’s anti-bribery and corruption practices and conceal the Bribery Scheme from US investors and international financial institutions in order to obtain financing, including to fund those solar energy supply contracts procured through bribery. As alleged, Gautam S Adani, Sagar R Adani and Vneet S Jaain caused the Indian Energy Company and certain of its subsidiaries to raise capital on the basis of false and misleading statements in connection with (i) two US dollar-denominated syndicate loans totaling more than US$2 billion from lender groups, comprised of international financial institutions and US-based investors; and (ii) two Rule 144A bond offerings for more than US$1 billion underwritten by international financial institutions, which were marketed and sold to investors in the US, among other places. In addition, Gautam S Adani, Sagar R Adani and Vneet S Jaain caused the Indian Energy Company to make false statements in their consolidated financial statements and to the market and investors regarding the Bribery Scheme.

The indictment further alleges that Cyril Cabanes, Saurabh Agarwal, Deepak Malhotra and Rupesh Agarwal conspired to obstruct the grand jury, FBI and US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) investigations into the Bribery Scheme. Among other things, those four defendants agreed to delete electronic materials related to the Bribery Scheme, including emails, electronic messages and Bribery Analyses; caused the US Issuer’s Board of Directors to initiate an internal investigation into the Bribery Scheme and then withheld material information from that investigation; and falsely denied their participation in the Bribery Scheme to representatives of the FBI, DOJ and SEC at meetings in Brooklyn, New York. For this conduct, Cyril Cabanes, Saurabh Agarwal, Deepak Malhotra and Rupesh Agarwal are charged with conspiracy to obstruct justice.

The charges in the indictment are allegations and the defendants are presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty.

In July 2022, Mr Peace was selected as the Chairperson of the White Collar Fraud subcommittee for the Attorney General’s Advisory Committee (AGAC). As the leader of the subcommittee, Mr Peace plays a key role in making recommendations to the AGAC to facilitate the prevention, investigation and prosecution of various financially motivated, non-violent crimes including bribery and fraud.

The investigation was conducted by the FBI New York’s Corporate, Securities and Commodities Fraud and International Corruption Units. The government’s case is being handled by the Business and Securities Fraud Section of the US Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of New York and the Criminal Division’s Fraud Section. Assistant US Attorneys Sarah M Evans, Matthew R Galeotti and Jessica K Weigel of the Eastern District of New York, Shy Jackson of the Criminal Division, Fraud Section’s FCPA Unit and Andrew Tyler of the Fraud Section’s Market Integrity and Major Frauds Unit are prosecuting the case, with assistance from Paralegal Specialists Liam McNett, Angelina Tyler and Nadiya Singh.

The Fraud Section is responsible for investigating and prosecuting FCPA and Foreign Extortion Prevention Act (FEPA) matters. 

The Department of Justice’s Office of International Affairs and the SEC’s New York Regional and Boston Regional offices provided valuable assistance during the investigation.

The Defendants:

GAUTAM S ADANI
Age: 62
India

SAGAR S ADANI
Age: 30
India

VNEET S JAAIN
Age: 53
India

RANJIT GUPTA
Age: 54
India

CYRIL CABANES
Age: 50
France / Australia

SAURABH AGARWAL
Age: 48
India

DEEPAK MALHOTRA
Age: 45
India

RUPESH AGARWAL
Age: 50
India

E.D.N.Y. Docket No. 24-CR-433 (NGG)

adani_et_al._indictment.pdf

Contact

John Marzulli
Danielle Blustein Hass
U.S. Attorney's Office
(718) 254-6323

Updated November 20, 2024

Source: TheEdge - 22 Nov 2024

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