US SEC seeks Indian govt’s help in $250 million Adani bribery probe
The Securities and Exchange Commission has sought India’s assistance in the US market regulator’s investigation of billionaire Gautam Adani and his nephew Sagar over allegations of paying more than $250 million in bribes to Indian government officials between 2020 and 2024 to secure lucrative solar-energy contracts.
The US SEC told a New York district court on Wednesday that as the Adanis are based out of India, the regulator had sought help from India’s law ministry to serve its complaint to the Ahmedabad-based business tycoon.
“Defendants are located in India, and the SEC’s efforts to serve them there are ongoing, including through a request for assistance to the Indian authorities to effect service under the Hague Service Convention for Service Abroad of Judicial and Extrajudicial Documents in Civil or Commercial Matters,” SEC’s counsel Christopher M. Colorado wrote in a letter, dated 18 January.
“Additionally, under Article 5(a) of the Hague Service Convention, the SEC has requested assistance from India’s Ministry of Law and Justice, the Central Authority for India under the Hague Service Convention. That process is ongoing, and the SEC will continue its efforts to serve Defendants in India by the methods prescribed by FRCP 4(f)—including under the Hague Service Convention—and will keep the Court apprised of its progress,” said Colorado in his letter to the Judge.
On 20 November, federal prosecutors in New York indicted a total of eight individuals for allegedly paying more than $250 million in bribes to Indian government officials between 2020 and 2024 to obtain lucrative solar-energy contracts. According to the indictment, Adani Green Energy Ltd raised $2 billion from American and foreign investors based on false and misleading statements about the firm’s anti-corruption and anti-bribery efforts. For this reason, the DoJ opened a criminal investigation, while the SEC is pursuing a civil investigation against Gautam Adani, Sagar Adani, and Adani Green Energy’s chief executive Vneet Jaain.
The SEC is probing if Adani violated the US Securities Act when Adani Green raised money from American investors without disclosing a justice department investigation into allegations of bribes paid by the company’s directors to unnamed Indian officials between 2020 and 2024.
The Indian conglomerate has denied the allegations by the US Department of Justice (DoJ) and the SEC, describing the allegations against its directors as “baseless”.
“All possible legal recourse will be sought,” said a spokesperson for the Adani Group in the past. “The Adani Group has always upheld and is 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 organisation fully compliant with all laws.”
“The SEC filed its Complaint on November 20, 2024, alleging that Defendants violated the antifraud provisions of the federal securities laws by knowingly or recklessly making false and misleading representations concerning Adani Green Energy Ltd. (“Adani Green”) in connection with a September 2021 debt offering by Adani Green. In a related criminal case arising from many of the same alleged facts, the United States Attorney for the Eastern District of New York charged Defendants with, among other things, conspiracy and securities fraud,” said SEC in its letter.
“In 2021, two senior executives of Adani Green Energy—Gautam Adani, Adani Green’s founder and controlling shareholder, and Sagar Adani, Adani Green’s executive director (collectively, “defendants”)—engaged in a bribery scheme involving the equivalent of hundreds of millions of dollars to obtain contracts that benefitted Adani Green, while, at the same time, falsely touting the company’s compliance with anti-bribery principles and laws in connection with a $750 million bond offering (the “offering”),” the SEC said in its complaint filed in a court in New York on 20 November.
“In September 2021, defendants leveraged that narrative in the offering to sell $750 million of Adani Green corporate bonds (“notes”), including more than $175 million in notes to investors in the US. In connection with the offering, Adani Green told purchasers of the notes that none of Adani Green’s directors or officers, including defendants themselves, had paid or promised to pay bribes to government officials or attempted to unduly influence those officials,” said the SEC.
