US District Court charges Adani Group chairman Gautam Adani with engaging in bribery and fraud scheme

New Delhi: Congress leader Jairam Ramesh said on Thursday that the US District Court in New York had validated the Congress’s demand for a Joint Parliamentary Committee investigation into the various alleged scams after charging Gautam Adani, the chairman of the Adani Group, and others in connection with an alleged bribery and fraud scheme.

In a post on X, Jairam stated: “The US Securities and Exchanges Commission (SEC) indictment of Gautam Adani and others supports the Indian National Congress’s demand, which has been in place since January 2023, for a Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) investigation into the various Modani scams. In its Hum Adani ke Hain (HAHK) series, the INC posed a hundred questions that exposed the several facets of these frauds as well as the close relationship that has existed between the prime minister and his preferred industrialist. These questions still haven’t been addressed.

The Congress representative said that the SEC’s actions also reflect poorly on how its “Indian counterpart, namely SEBI,” has investigated the Adani Group’s suspected breaches of securities and other laws.

“The INC reiterates its demand for a JPC in the transactions of the Adani Group, which is leading to growing monopolization in key sectors of the Indian economy, fuelling inflation, and posing huge foreign policy challenges as well, especially in our neighbourhood,” Jairam Ramesh said.

According to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District New York, “A five-count criminal indictment was unsealed in federal court charging Gautam Adani, Sagar R. Adani, and Vneet S. Jaain, 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 U.S. investors and global financial institutions based on false and misleading statements.”

In addition, Cyril Cabanes, Saurabh Agarwal, and Deepak Malhotra, former employees of a Canadian institutional investor, and Ranjit Gupta and Rupesh Agarwal, former executives of a renewable energy company whose securities had traded on the New York Stock Exchange (the U.S. Issuer), are charged in the indictment with conspiracy to violate the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act in connection with the alleged bribery scheme.

“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 U.S. and international investors,” said Breon Peace, United States Attorney.

The executive is also charged in the indictment with hindering the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), FBI, and Department of Justice (DOJ) investigations.

The indictment’s counts, according to the US Attorney’s office, are allegations, and the defendants are deemed innocent until and until proved guilty. The Corporate, Securities and Commodities Fraud and International Corruption Units of the FBI New York carried out the investigation.

The Criminal Division’s Fraud Section and the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of New York’s Business and Securities Fraud Section are handling the government’s case.

The offices of Gautam Adani and other individuals included in the indictment have not yet responded.