Gautam Adani, others face charges over bribery scheme: Key highlights of the 54-page US indictment

A press statement from the US Attorney's Office, Eastern District of New York accused Gautam Adani and group officials "with conspiracies to commit securities and wire fraud and substantive securities fraud."

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US prosecutors have charged Gautam Adani with criminal indictment over involvement in a plan that promised to pay over $250 million, or Rs 2,100 crore in bribes to Indian government officials for solar energy contracts, sending Adani Group shares sharply lower in trade on November 21.

A press statement from the US Attorney's Office, Eastern District of New York accused Gautam Adani and group officials "with conspiracies to commit securities and wire fraud and substantive securities fraud." The defendants have been charged for "their roles in a multi-billion-dollar scheme to obtain funds from U.S. investors and global financial institutions on the basis of false and misleading statements."

Read More: Adani stocks plunge 20% after US bribery charges in $250 mn solar case

Hours after the indictment, Adani Green informed stock exchanges that it will not be proceeding with its proposed Dollar bond offerings.

These are some of the highlights from the DoJ indictment.

- On several occasions, Gautam 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.

- Sagar Adani used his cellular phone to track specific details of the bribes offered and promised to government officials

- The Bribe Notes also identified the per MW rate for the total bribe amount offered, abbriviated titles of the government officials who would receive bribe

Read More: Bribery charges against Gautam Adani credit negative, says Moody’s Ratings

- When communicating about the scheme, defendants Gautam Adani, Vneet Jaain were referred to by code names by other defendants. Gautam Adani was referred to as 'SAG', 'Mr A', 'Numero uno', 'the big man', and Vneet Jaain was referred to as 'V', 'snake', and 'Numero uno minus one'

- Defendants agreed to supress documents, conceal and provide false information to US government to obstuct investigations

- Vneet 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

- Rupesh Agarwal prepared and distributed to other defendants multiple analyses using PowerPoint and Excel that summarized various options for paying and concealing bribe payments

Read More: GQG Partners says monitoring charges by US Attorney office

- On March 17, 2023, FBI special agents approached Sagar Adani in US, and had taken custody of electronic devices in possession of Sagar Adani, providing him with a copy of search warrant

- Gautam Adani emailed himself photos of each page of the search warrant and grand jury subpoena the FBI handed his nephew and co-defendant Sagar Adani.

- Some members of the group destroyed evidence to hide their participation in the scheme, including a PowerPoint analysis and electronic communications.

- In March 2024, Gautam and Sagar Adani despite being aware of the FBI investigation into the bribery scheme denied any awareness in a news article, and informed a lenders and financial institutions that the allegations were baseless.