Gautam Adani was charged with wire and securities fraud by prosecutors in Brooklyn.
Federal prosecutors in New York charged the Indian mogul Gautam Adani, one of the world’s richest people, with multiple counts of fraud, accusing him and associates of bribing Indian officials and later lying to investors about the scheme.
Mr. Adani, who has amassed a fortune estimated to be over $85 billion from holdings in ports, coal mines and airports, was charged with wire and securities fraud by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of New York, the office said Wednesday in a statement.
The charges stem from accusations that the defendants paid more than $250 million in bribes to Indian government officials to obtain lucrative solar energy contracts with the government for a business called Adani Green Energy. Mr. Adani personally met with officials to discuss the scheme in person, prosecutors said.
Adani Green Energy then tried to raise money from U.S. and international investors on the basis of false and misleading statements, the U.S. attorney’s office said.
“As alleged, the defendants orchestrated an elaborate scheme to bribe Indian government officials to secure contracts worth billions of dollars,” Breon Peace, the U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of New York, said in a statement. Mr. Adani and his associates “lied about the bribery scheme as they sought to raise capital from U.S. and international investors.”
The Securities and Exchange Commission filed a parallel civil case saying that Adani Green Energy raised more than $175 million from U.S. investors as part of its fund-raising. One of Mr. Adani’s associates was charged with conspiracy to violate the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, which prohibits companies that operate in the United States from bribing foreign officials.
Other executives at Mr. Adani’s energy company were also charged Wednesday, including Sagar R. Adani, Mr. Adani’s nephew; Vneet S. Jaain; as well as former employees of a Canadian institutional investor who are accused of conspiring to violate the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act.
A lawyer for Mr. Adani could not be immediately reached for comment.
The criminal charges against Mr. Adani come nearly two years after Mr. Adani’s conglomerate, the Adani Group, was accused of “brazen accounting fraud, stock manipulation and money laundering,” by Hindenburg Research, a small investment firm in New York.
The Adani Group denied those claims, but its stock price cratered after the report.
This is a developing story. Check back for updates.
Matthew Goldstein contributed reporting.