‘The big man’: Billionaire mogul hit with bribery, fraud charges

In January 2023, the US-based short-seller Hindenburg Research accused Adani Group of using offshore tax havens improperly, a charge the company denied. The report sparked an approximately $US150 billion meltdown in Adani Group stocks.

Gautam Adani, 62, is worth $US69.8 billion according to Forbes magazine, making him the world’s 22nd richest person and India’s second-richest person behind Reliance Industries Chair Mukesh Ambani.

Among the other defendants are Ranjit Gupta and Rupesh Agarwal, respectively a former chief executive and former chief strategy and commercial officer of Azure Power Global, and Cyril Cabanes, a director there.

The other defendants, as well as Cabanes, also worked for a Canadian institutional investor, prosecutors said.

Seven of the defendants are Indian citizens who lived in India during the relevant period, while Cabanes is a dual French-Australian citizen who lived in Singapore, prosecutors said.

According to court records, a judge has issued arrest warrants for Gautam Adani and Sagar Adani, and prosecutors plan to hand those warrants to foreign law enforcement.

The US Securities and Exchange Commission filed related civil charges against Gautam Adani, Sagar Adani and Cabanes.

Last week, Gautam Adani said in a post on social media platform X that his conglomerate planned to invest $US10 billion in US energy security and infrastructure projects, creating a potential 15,000 jobs, without providing a timetable.

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Adani announced the investment while also congratulating US President-elect Donald Trump on his election win.

Trump has pledged to make it easier for energy companies to drill on federal land and build new pipelines.

The charges were announced hours after Adani on Wednesday raised $US600 million from a sale of 20-year “green” bonds.

Reuters