Shares in India's Adani Group plunge 20% after US bribery, fraud indictments
One of Asia’s richest men, controversial Indian tycoon Gautam Adani, is again in the spotlight
NEW DELHI — One of Asia’s richest men, controversial Indian tycoon Gautam Adani, is again in the spotlight. His companies’ stocks plunged up to 20% on Thursday after he was indicted by U.S. prosecutors on charges he duped investors in a massive solar energy project in India by concealing that it was being facilitated by an alleged bribery scheme.
In an indictment unsealed by federal prosecutors in New York on Wednesday, Adani, 62, was charged with securities fraud and conspiracy to commit securities and wire fraud.
One result of the U.S. legal action is that the Adani group decided not to proceed with a proposed U.S. dollar-denominated bond offering. Adani Renewables announced the decision in letters to the Bombay Stock Exchange and the National Stock Exchange of India.
In a statement, the group said the allegations against directors of Adani Green “are baseless and denied.” The U.S. Department of Justice said “the charges in the indictment are allegations, and the defendants are presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty.”
Adani is the son of a middle-class family in Ahmedabad in western India’s Gujarat state. He quit college to become a diamond trader in Mumbai, India’s financial capital. In the 1980s, he started importing plastics before establishing Adani Enterprises, which traded in everything from shoes to buckets and remains his flagship company.
India opened up its economy in the 1990s and a new middle class emerged as tens of millions of people escaped poverty and the economy boomed, prompting Adani to bet on infrastructure and coal.
Adani’s first big project, the Mundra port in Gujarat, opened in 1998 and is
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