Gautam Adani Devised Bribery Scheme To Make Indian Govt Entity Buy Solar Power From His Company: US Dept Of Justice

According to the charges filed by the United States Department of Justice in a U.S. court, Gautam Adani, along with others, orchestrated a million-dollar bribery scheme in the USA to bribe Indian government officials. This bribery scheme was executed to secure contracts for an Adani company to sell solar power to Solar Energy Corporation of India Ltd (SECI), a Public Sector Undertaking owned by the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy, Government of India.

As per the US Justice Department's filing, the Adani company and a US company were issued Letters of Award(LOA) between December 2019 and July 2020 for a manufacturing-linked tender offered by the SECI. According to the award, the US company was to supply four gigawatts and the Adani company was to supply eight gigawatts of solar power to SECI. SECI, on its part, had to find state distribution companies which would purchase the 12 gigawatts of solar power which the Adani company and the US company would supply.

However, the alleged high prices quoted in the Letters of Award made it difficult for the SECI to find state buyers for the solar power to be supplied by the Adani & US companies. Therefore, Gautam Adani, along with Adani company executives Sagar Adani & Vneet Jaain, and certain other officials of the US company, devised a scheme to bribe Indian government officials in exchange for SECI making state companies agree to purchase the power sold by SECI. If SECI can execute Power Sale Agreements (PSA) with the state companies, then the Adani/US companies can execute Power Purchase Agreements (PPA) with the SECI.

"SECI's inability to find purchasers jeopardized the lucrative LOAs, and corresponding revenue, that the Indian Energy Company's subsidiary and the U.S. Issuer anticipated receiving from the Manufacturing Linked Project. As a result, in or about 2020, the defendants GAUTAM S. ADANI, SAGAR R. ADANI, VNEET S. JAAIN, RANJIT GUPTA and Co-Conspirator #2, among others, devised a scheme to offer, authorize, make and promise to make bribe payments to Indian government officials in exchange for the government officials causing state electricity distribution companies to enter into Power Sale Agreements with SECI, which would allow the Indian Energy Company's subsidiaries and the U.S. Issuer to secure PPAs with SECI," the US DoJ stated.

It is alleged that Gautam Adani and others offered approximately Rs 2,209 crores (265 million US dollars) in bribes to Indian government officials. Approximately, Rs 1750 crores (228 million US dollars) was offered to one official to persuade Andhra Pradesh's power distribution company to purchase 7 gigawatts of power from the SECI.

As per the filing :

"Following the promise of bribes to Indian government officials, in or about and between July 2021 and February 2022, electricity distribution companies for the states and regions of Odisha, Jammu and Kashmir, Tamil Nadu, Chhattisgarh and Andhra Pradesh entered into PSAs with SECI under the Manufacturing Linked Project. Andhra Pradesh's electricity distribution companies entered into a PSA with SECI on or about December 1, 2021, pursuant to which the state agreed to purchase approximately seven gigawatts of solar power— by far the largest amount of any Indian state or region."

"With executed PSAs under the Manufacturing Linked Project, SECI could enter into corresponding PPAs to purchase solar power from the Indian Energy Company's subsidiaries and the U.S. Issuer. In or about and between October 2021 and February 2022, the U.S. Issuer and the Indian Energy Company, through subsidiaries, executed PPAs with SECI.

Pursuant to the PPAs, the U.S. Issuer agreed to supply SECI with approximately 650 megawatts of solar power for the Indian states and region of Chhattisgarh, Tamil Nadu, Odisha and Jammu and Kashmir (collectively, the "650 MW PPAs") and approximately 2.3 gigawatts of solar power for the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh (the "2.3 GW PPAs"). Subsidiaries for the Indian Energy Company, likewise, executed their own PPAs with SECl under which the subsidiaries agreed to supply SECI with solar power for the Indian states and region of Chhattisgarh, Tamil Nadu, Odisha, Jammu and Kashmir and Andhra Pradesh. Following the execution of the Andhra Pradesh-linked PPAs by the Indian Energy Company's subsidiaries, the Indian Energy Company."

It is alleged that these activities violated the the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) and the Foreign Extortion Prevention Act (FEPA). 

The FCPA was enacted by US Congress for the purpose of, among other things, making it unlawful for certain classes of persons and entities to act corruptly in furtherance of an offer, promise, authorization or payment of money or anything of value, directly or indirectly, to a foreign official for the purpose of obtaining or retaining business for, or directing business to, any person.

It is alleged that Adani and others conspired to misrepresent the company's anti-bribery practices to US-based investors and concealed from them their bribery of Indian officials.

“As alleged, the defendants orchestrated an elaborate scheme to bribe Indian government officials to secure contracts worth billions of dollars and Gautam S. Adani, Sagar R. Adani and Vneet S. Jaain lied about the bribery scheme as they sought to raise capital from U.S. and international investors,” stated United States Attorney Peace.

“This indictment alleges schemes to pay over $250 million in bribes to Indian government officials, to lie to investors and banks to raise billions of dollars, and to obstruct justice,” stated Deputy Assistant Attorney General Miller. “These offenses were allegedly committed by senior executives and directors to obtain and finance massive state energy supply contracts through corruption and fraud at the expense of U.S. investors. The Criminal Division will continue to aggressively prosecute corrupt, deceptive, and obstructive conduct that violates U.S. law, no matter where in the world it occurs.”

“Gautam S. Adani and seven other business executives allegedly bribed the Indian government to finance lucrative contracts designed to benefit their businesses. Adani and other defendants also defrauded investors by raising capital on the basis of false statements about bribery and corruption, while still other defendants allegedly attempted to conceal the bribery conspiracy by obstructing the government's investigation,” stated FBI Assistant Director in Charge Dennehy.

Adani Green has published a statement denying the allegations. ""The allegations made by the US Department of Justice and the US Securities and Exchange Commission against directors of Adani Green are baseless and denied. As stated by the US Department of Justice itself, the charges in the indictment are allegations and the defendants are presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty. All possible legal recourse will be sought," said the spokesperson of Adani Greens.

Click here to read the indictment document