The $250 million Adani bribery case: whistleblower complaints, WhatsApp texts, and ‘incentives’
Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. Two whistleblower complaints flagging financial impropriety at a small New York Stock Exchange-listed company marked the start of a two-year probe by the US government into the Adani group.
On Thursday, the probe culminated in the indictment of billionaire Gautam Adani and seven others in a $250 million bribery scam, sinking the stocks of the Indian conglomerate. Adani group denied the allegations by the US Department of Justice and the US Securities and Exchange Commission, terming the allegations against its directors, including Gautam Adani and his nephew Sagar Adani, “baseless".
The NYSE-listed company, Azure Power Global Ltd, had disclosed in its annual report for 2022-23 that its audit committee had received two whistleblower complaints—in May 2022 and September 2022—detailing improper payments to Indian government officials. An internal probe did not find any wrongdoing, the New Delhi-headquartered company said, sharing the complaints and its investigation with the US justice department and market regulator.
“We have disclosed the details of the Special Committee’s investigation to the SEC and the US Department of Justice, and we continue to cooperate with those agencies," Azure Power stated in its annual report for the financial year ended March 2023. As part of its probe, the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) served a grand jury subpoena notice to Sagar Adani in March last year.
The Adani group did not disclose this information when Adani Green Energy Ltd raised $2 billion from foreign investors, including American investors, according to the US justice department. Also read | Mint Explainer: The US indictment of Gautam Adani “[D]espite knowing certain of the subject
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