Adani’s Corruption Charges Linked to Jagan’s Power Agreements?

In a second major setback for Indian billionaire Gautam Adani, boss of India’s Adani Group, and seven others were indicted in a multibillion-dollar bribery and fraud scheme in the US.

According to the charges, it is alleged that the group bribed Indian officials, Andhra Pradesh in particular, to secure solar energy contracts, by “defrauding American investors and bribing officials” to obtain funds.

Andhra Pradesh in Focus

Gautam Adani and his nephew Sagar Adani (30), have been charged with corruption and fraud at the expense of US investors and global financial institutions by submitting false and misleading statements.

The indictment says Adani and others paid nearly $250 million (Rs 2,029 crore) in bribes to Indian government officials, expecting that these solar energy contracts under the Manufacturing Linked Project (MLP) with Andhra Pradesh, would generate $2 billion in profit over two decades.

Bribes for PSAs

The indictment unsealed in the Eastern District of New York, says the bribes were allegedly aimed at securing Power Sale Agreements (PSAs) for state electricity distribution companies (DISCOMs), particularly in Andhra Pradesh.

It is alleged that Foreign Official #1, identified as a high-level official in AP between 2019 and 2024, received nearly Rs 1,750 crore ($228 million) in promised payments. The indictment also named Odisha, Tamil Nadu, Chhattisgarh, Jammu and Kashmir.

Adani meets AP’s high-level official

The indictment also detailed about multiple meetings between Gautam Adani’s personal interaction with Foreign Official #1 of Andhra Pradesh to proceed with the agreements. Adani met the said Official on August 7, September 12 and November 20 in 2021. After this, AP Discoms entered into a PSA with Solar Energy Corporation of India (SECI) on December 1, 2021, agreeing to purchase 2.3 GW of solar power, the largest amount procured by any Indian state.

Agreement between Adani Group-AP

It is significant to note that the fraud comes to light in the backdrop of a high-profile agreement between the Andhra Pradesh government and the Adani Group to establish a 10,000 MW solar power project and a 3,700 MW pumped storage hydropower plant.

Together, the two projects would bring in investment of Rs 60,000 crore and they were touted as transformative for AP’s renewable energy sector, with a potential to generate employment, direct and indirect, to nearly 10,000 people.

Adani ‘Numero Uno’

The prosecutors in the US also claimed that some conspirators involved in the scheme used code names like “Numero Uno” and “the big man”, which referred to Gautam Adani.

The indictment also alleges that Gautam Adani and Sagar Adani, along with another executive Vineet Jain hid the bribery from lenders and investors to secure over $3 billion in loans and bonds for Adani Green Energy.

Gautam 2nd richest in Asia

Gautam Adani is the second-richest person in Asia, with a reported net worth of $85 billion.

It is worth recalling that Adani lost billions of dollars in personal wealth in 2023 when short-selling firm Hindenburg Research published a report accusing Adani Group of engaging in a brazen stock manipulation and accounting fraud scheme over the course of decades.

Hindenburg’s report called it “the largest con in corporate history”.