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CNN
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Indian billionaire Gautam Adani and other executives were charged by US prosecutors in New York on Wednesday for their alleged role in a years-long, multi-billion dollar bribery and fraud scheme involving plans to develop a major solar power plant.

The Department of Justice (DOJ) said in a statement that Adani, a key ally of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, and seven other executives, including his cousin Sagar Adani, promised more than $250 million in bribes to Indian government officials to secure solar secure energy. contracts.

The impact of the allegations, which came more than a year after a U.S. short seller accused the Adani Group of stock manipulation and accounting fraud, was immediately felt across the sprawling conglomerate. On Thursday, shares in the group’s listed companies fell between 10% and 20%, wiping just under $30 billion in total market value, according to Reuters data.

It has also created political waves in India with the Indian National Congress, a key rival of Modi ruling Bharatiya Janata Party and renewed calls for a parliamentary inquiry into Adani’s companies.

The DOJ claims that the solar supply contracts were expected to generate more than $2 billion in after-tax profits over approximately 20 years.

Authorities say Adani, 62, personally met with an Indian government official to “advance” the scheme, which took place between 2020 and 2024. The defendants met regularly and reportedly discussed the bribery scheme, including evidence on several phones.

“This indictment alleges schemes to pay more than $250 million in bribes to Indian government officials, lie to investors and banks to rake in billions of dollars, and obstruct justice,” Deputy Assistant Attorney General Lisa Miller said in the statement .

“These violations are alleged to have been 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,” she added.

In a statement to CNN, the Adani Group called the allegations “baseless and denied.”

“The Adani Group has always been and steadfastly committed to maintaining the highest standards of governance, transparency and regulatory compliance across all jurisdictions of its operations. We assure our stakeholders, partners and employees that we are a law-abiding organization, fully compliant with all laws,” a spokesperson for the group said.

Adani, the founder of his eponymous group, is Asia’s second-richest person after compatriot Mukesh Ambani, worth more than $85 billion, according to Bloomberg’s Billionaires Index.

In a letter to India’s two major stock exchanges, Adani Green, which is building the world’s largest power plant on the edge of western India, acknowledged the separate criminal and civil charges filed by U.S. officials. Sagar Adani is the company’s executive director.

“In light of these developments, our subsidiaries have currently decided not to proceed with the proposed USD-denominated bond offering,” the report said. Reuters and the Financial Times reported that the bond sale was worth $600 million.

U.S. authorities said Adani and his associates attempted to conceal the alleged bribery schemes from U.S. investors “to obtain financing, including the financing of solar energy supply contracts negotiated through bribery.”

They pointed to documentation including a cell phone to extensively track specific details about the bribes, a photo of a document summarizing various bribe amounts, and PowerPoint and Excel analyzes “summarizing various options for paying and concealing bribes .”

In a parallel civil action, the Securities and Exchange Commission charged both Adanis (as executives of Adani Green Energy Ltd) and Cyril Cabanes, a director of Azure Power Global, in the bribery scheme that the SEC said allowed both companies to capitalize on a lucrative contract by the Indian government. According to the SEC, Adani Green raised more than $175 million from US investors through these misrepresentations.

CNN has contacted India’s Ministry of External Affairs for comment.

For more than a year, the Adani Group has been trying to rebuild its reputation following allegations made in January 2023 by US short seller Hindenburg Research of a “brazen stock manipulation and accounting fraud.” The billionaire’s fortune, which at one point in 2022 was worth more than Jeff Bezos’, plummeted by more than $80 billion after the report.

In its study, which Hindenburg said took two years to compile, the US firm had questioned the “sky-high valuations” of Adani companies and said their “substantial debt” left the entire group “in a precarious financial position.” base’. Short sellers make money by betting that a company’s stock will fall.

The Adani Group published a 400-page rebuttal calling the Hindenburg analysis “nothing but a lie.”

Adani started his career in diamond trading. He set up a commodities trading company in 1988, which later evolved into Adani Enterprises, and now has businesses in key sectors ranging from ports and energy to media and clean energy.