Gautam Adani, chairman of the Indian conglomerate Adani Group and one of the richest people in the worldhas been convicted in a case in New York Alleged billion dollar fraud schemeUS prosecutors said on Wednesday.
Authorities charged Adani and two other Adani Green Energy executives, his nephew Sagar Adani and Vineet Jain, with agreeing to pay bribes of more than $250 million to Indian government officials to obtain solar power supply contracts between 2020 and 2024. , which was expected to yield $2 billion. Profit.
Prosecutors said the renewable energy company raised more than $3 billion in loans and bonds during the period based on false and misleading statements.
Five other people were charged with related criminal conspiracy, including two executives of another renewable energy company and three employees of a Canadian institutional investor.
Adani Group did not immediately respond to requests for comment outside business hours in India, where the charges were announced Thursday morning.
India’s embassy in Washington did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
According to court records, a judge has issued arrest warrants for Gautam Adani and Sagar Adani, and prosecutors plan to turn those warrants over to foreign law enforcement.
Prosecutors said seven of the eight defendants are Indian citizens and lived in India, while the eighth, Cyril Cabanes, is a dual French-Australian citizen who lived in Singapore.
The Securities and Exchange Commission filed related civil charges against Gautam Adani, Sagar Adani and Cabanes, a 50-year-old executive at Azure Power Global. Prosecutors identified Cabanes as one of the Canadian investor’s employees.
According to Forbes magazine, Gautam Adani is worth $69.8 billion, making him the 22nd richest person in the world.
