According to Bloomberg's Billionaires Index, 62-year-old Gautam Adani is worth more than $85 billion.
A federal court in New York has indicted 7 people including Gautam Adani for fraud and bribery of billions of dollars. The United States Attorney's Office says Adani promised to pay $250 million in bribes to Indian officials to get solar energy contracts in India.
Adani is accused of lying to American, foreign investors and banks to collect these bribes. The names of Adani Green Energy Limited officials and Gautam Adani's nephews Sagar and Vineet Jain are also among the accused.
According to a Reuters report, arrest warrants have been issued against Gautam Adani and Sagar Adani. Prosecutors are preparing to hand over warrants to foreign law enforcement agencies.
On Wednesday, Adani announced to raise $600 million from the sale of 20-year green bonds. A few hours later, he was charged with fraud.
Adani Green Energy is setting up a 30,000 MW solar plant at a single location in Khawda, Gujarat.
The charges leveled against Adani by the US Attorney's Office…
- Between 2020 and 2024, all accused, including Adani, agreed to pay $250 million in bribes to Indian officials to obtain solar power contracts from the Indian government. The project was expected to generate more than $2 billion in profits over 20 years.
- Adani met an official of the Indian government to push the plan forward. While Sagar and Vineet had many meetings to work on this plan. Cyril Cabnes, Saurabh Aggarwal, Deepak Malhotra and Rupesh Aggarwal have also been made accused.
- The court was told that all four conspired to avoid grand jury, FBI and US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) investigations into the bribery scheme. All four also deleted emails, messages and analysis related to the scheme.
- Adani Green Energy raised a total of $3 billion from US investors and international lenders to fund the contract.
Sagar Adani manages the energy business
Gautam Adani's nephew Sagar Adani holds a degree in Economics from Brown University US. After graduation, Sagar joined the Adani Group in 2015. Sagar manages the group's energy business and finance. It focuses on the renewable energy business and plans to be the world's largest renewable energy company by 2030.
Adani's energy shares fell on Monday
Adani Energy shares fell two days earlier on November 18 despite the US Department of Justice's indictments coming out on Wednesday night. Shares of Adani Energy Solutions closed down 1.33 percent.
Shares of Adani Green Energy were down 2.33 percent. It closed at Rs 1457. Shares of Adani Total Gas fell 2.13 percent to Rs. It closed at 669.60.
Adani announced investment in America last week
Adani recently announced a $10 billion investment in the US, which is expected to create 15,000 jobs.
Some interesting facts related to Gautam Adani and his journey…
Tried his luck in the diamond industry: Born on 24 June 1962, Gautam Adani hails from Gujarat. He tried his luck in Mumbai's diamond industry in the early 1980s and returned to Gujarat to run his brother's plastics business. After this the Adani Group started in 1988 with a small agri trading firm.
It has now transformed into a conglomerate spanning coal trading, mining, logistics, power generation and distribution. The Adani Group is also into green energy, airports, data centers and cement industries. Gautam Adani has committed to invest a total of $70 billion by 2030 to make his group the world's largest renewable energy producer.
Creation of Adani Foundation in 1996: Adani Foundation was established in 1996 under the leadership of wife Preeti Adani. He has worked on social programs in rural areas of India. Currently, this foundation is helping upliftment of 34 lakh people annually in 18 states of the country. Preeti is a doctor by profession, having done her graduation in Dental Surgery (BDS).
Controversy related to Gautam Adani…
First Controversy: Charges of Money Laundering at Hindenburg Research : Dated in January 2023. Gautam Adani's flagship company Adani Enterprises has invested Rs. 20,000 crore announced a follow-on public offer. The offer was scheduled to open on January 27, 2023, but before that, Hindenburg Research released a report on January 24, 2023, accusing the Adani Group of money laundering and share manipulation.
As of January 25, the market value of the group's shares fell by nearly $12 billion (roughly Rs 1 lakh crore). However, Adani denied any wrongdoing allegations. In such a situation, the Adani Group will withdraw its Rs. 20,000 crore follow-on public offer was also cancelled. The Supreme Court constituted a 6-member committee to investigate the case and SEBI also investigated the case.
After the court's decision, Adani Group Chairman Gautam Adani said, 'The court's decision shows that truth has won. Satyamev Jayate. I am grateful to those who stood with us. Our contribution to India's development story will continue. Jai Hind.'
Another controversy: Allegation of selling low-grade coal in high-grade: A month ago, the Financial Times, citing a report by the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project, claimed that the Adani group had sold 28 million units in January 2014. Coal bought 'low-grade' coal from an Indonesian company at $1 per tonne.
The report alleged that the shipment was sold to the Tamil Nadu Generation and Distribution Company (TANGEDCO) as high quality coal at an average price of $91.91 per tonne.
Earlier also Adani Group was accused of rigging the coal import bill
- The Financial Times, in a report, alleged that the Adani group had imported coal from Indonesia at low rates and falsely showed higher prices in bills. Because of this, the group sold electricity generated from coal to consumers at high prices.
- The Financial Times examined 30 shipments of coal imported from Indonesia to India by the Adani Group in the 32 months between 2019 and 2021. The import records of all these shipments showed that the price was higher than the export declaration. This amount has increased by about ₹582 crore.
Image Credit: (Divya-Bhaskar): Images/graphics belong to (Divya-Bhaskar).
