Group chairman Gautam Adani, his nephew Sagar Adani, and senior executive Vneet Jaain have no bribery charges as declared by the US Department of Justice, said Adani Group today. Adani Green Energy, a listed company of the Adani Group, has described such media reports as “unfactual” in its latest communication to the stock exchange.
“According to the counts in the US DOJ indictment and the US SEC’s civil complaint (EXPAND), neither Mr Gautam Adani, Mr Sagar Adani, or Mr Vneet Jaain have been accused of violating the FCPA,” Adani continued. FCPA stands for the US Foreign Corruption Practices Act.
The five charges in the indictment announced by the Department of Justice involve the three directors, Gautam Adani, Sagar Adani, and Vneet Jaain only in the first and the fifth charges, which are conspiracy to violate the FCPA and conspiracy to obstruct justice, respectively, it added.
The statement of Adani Group said that, according to the various national and international media and other media wrong reports regarding the US indictment, there was a ‘misunderstanding’ in respect of the indictment and this understanding motivated the false report that three directors of the Adani Group involved in corruption and bribery charges.
The US indictment proceeded on assumptions that bribes were only being talked about or proposed. Of course, it was not aimed at proving that Indian government officials ordered bribes from Adani executives, the group stated.
Speaking at a press conference senior lawyer Mukul Rohatgi said that from the chargesheet, one cannot decipher who has been bribed.
The adverse and unsubstantiated US action and flagrant material fabrication has had severe consequences for the Indian conglomerate; its overseas projects have been shut down, its stock prices have fallen, and it has been subjected to investigations by strategic partners, investors and the public, the Adani statement noted.
Since the US indictment, Adani Group’s 11 listed companies’ market capitalization, eroded nearly by $55 billion, claimed the conglomerate. “Since the intimation of the US DoJ (Department of Justice) indictment, the group has lost $54.8 billion in its market capitalisation across its 11 listed firms,” it said.
Here’s the full statement by Adani Group:
Gautam Adani, his nephew Sagar Adani and senior executive Vineet Jain have said they have no involvement in any way with Bribery as stated in the US DoJ as made known in the latest filing to the stock exchanges by AGEL, a group company that is Adani Green Energy Limited.
In its filing, AGEL claimed that news reporting by various media houses regarding the bribery and corruption charges against Adani officials was ‘Incorrect’. The news articles report that our directors namely Mr Gautam Adani, In the indictment, Mr Sagar Adani and Mr Vneet Jaain are charged with breaking the requirements of the US Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. Of course, as I pointed out earlier, such statements are incorrect. As per the statement filed by Adani Green Energy Ltd. According to the US DOJ indictment and the US SEC’s civil action, “Mr Gautam Adani, Mr Sagar Adani, and Mr Vneet Jaain have not been charged with any violation of the FCPA,” the statement continued.
In legal language count is the formal charges against a defendant brought in a criminal process start to face indictment.
The DoJ Indictment, which has five counts, does not have any mention of and has excluded Gautam Adani, Sagar Adani or Vneet Jaain in Count One: It does not even refer to these three names in Count Five: “Conspiracy to violate the FCPA”; much less in “Conspiracy to obstruct justice” (pg, 41).
Count One of the indictment, under which corruption and bribery charges have been made, relates only to Ranjit Gupta, Cyril Cabanes, Saurabh Agarwal, Deepak Malhotra, and Rupesh Agarwal of Azure Power and CDPQ (Caisse de depot et placement du Quebec – a Canadian institutional investor and Azure’s largest shareholder). None of the Adani officials has been christened by DoJ under this.
This notwithstanding, due to misunderstandings of some media foreign and Indian regarding the DoJ indictment some have reported that the Adani Directors have been charged with corruption and bribery under or of all counts five by the US DoJ and SEC.
Only Count 2: “Alleged securities fraud conspiracy,” Count 3: “Alleged wire fraud conspiracy,” and Count 3: “Alleged securities fraud” are charges against Adani officials.
No evidence against Adani is mentioned
The DoJ Indictment does not state that people close to Adani made any actual bribery payments to government individuals, while the indictment together with the complaint revolves only around the allegations that bribery payments were being planned or under discussion.
This is based on likelihoods and hearsay from former employees of Azure Power and CDPQ where the US DoJ and US SEC action against Adani stands on very thin ethical and legal ground– the ground of extremely high risks and highly tenuous evidence at best, said XYZ.
The misguided American action and the destructive false reporting have become disastrous for the Indian conglomerate, resulting from manoeuvring of abolishing its international projects, affecting the financial market, and abrupt scrutiny from both Strategic partners and investors and the public.
Adani – Going head to head with the US and Chinese Majors
To date, Adani Group is one of the biggest infrastructure conglomerates of India majorly undertaking trading activities in the International Energy and Logistic sector. In recent years, the Indian conglomerate has been venturing abroad and directly rivals many American and Chinese players in Africa, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Israel, Australia, etc.
After the announcement of the US DoJ Indictment the group’s market capitalization eroded by almost US$ 55 Bn in its 11 listed companies.”
