The Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec withheld information about two managers of its subsidiary in India even though it knew very well that they had been fired a year earlier in connection with corrupt activities.
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A year after firing two senior executives suspected of corruption in India, the Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec not only failed to disclose this information in public regulatory documents, but it paid tribute to the two executives, according to discovered our Bureau of Investigation.
In documents from the CDPQ India subsidiary filed in India in September 2024 obtained by our Investigation Office, the Caisse is full of praise for Saurabh Agarwal and Deepak Malhotra.
These two executives, who were respectively general manager of CDPQ India and director of infrastructure for South Asia for the Caisse, were accused in November of conspiracy to obstruct justice in the United States.
The accusations are linked to an alleged scheme involving Indian solar energy producer Azure Power Global, in which the Caisse swallowed up $600 million in Quebecers’ savings.
“The council [de CDPQ India] expresses its gratitude for the services and advice provided by [Deepak Malhotra et Saurabh Agarwal]», We can read in the document which reports the financial statements of CDPQ India.
However, according to information obtained from the Fund in recent days, Malhotra was fired in October 2023 and did not receive severance pay. As for Agarwal, he left in July 2023 and received severance pay, but the Fund has since requested reimbursement of part of this severance already paid and classified his departure as dismissal.
Deepak Malhotra was an executive at the Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec from 2018 to 2023. Photo provided by CDPQ
Photo provided by CDPQ
The CDPQ India document also specifies that the Caisse currently considers the performance of its Indian subsidiary to be satisfactory.
“The members of the company’s board of directors are eminent people whose competence and integrity are proven,” he is assured.
The document was signed by Élyse Bedwani, Vice-President Operations, CDPQ Mondial and Sustainable Investment, who gives an address in Laval.
Questioned by our Bureau of Investigation about the contradiction between its comments and the reality of these dismissals, the Fund recognized that the formula in which it expressed its gratitude should have been withdrawn. “This is a common formula in India,” assured spokesperson Jean-Benoît Houde. The Fund did not respond directly to why there was no mention of the dismissal of executives in the documents.
Agarwal, Malhotra and another top Caisse executive, Cyril Cabanes, allegedly tried to thwart an investigation by U.S. authorities by deleting emails and presentations summarizing bribes, while misleading investors, authorities allege. American.
Rich remuneration
The Indian documents contain other information that raises questions. We can read for example that Agarwal received remuneration totaling 64.6 million rupees during the last financial year preceding his departure, the equivalent of more than a million Canadian dollars. This sum does not include the severance pay which was additionally paid to him, mentioned the spokesperson for the Fund.
This remuneration consisted of a salary of 29.9 million rupees, but also other payments of unspecified nature totaling 34.7 million rupees.
There is also mention of short-term benefits paid to a small group of executives (the “key management personnel”), including Malhotra and Agarwal, a sharp increase compared to the previous year.
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