Indian tycoon Gautam Adani indicted for corruption by American justice

American federal justice indicted Indian tycoon Gautam Adani on Wednesday, November 20 in New York, accusing him of corruption in order to obtain solar energy contracts to the detriment of investors in the United States.

According to a press release from Brooklyn prosecutor Breon Peace, between 2020 and 2024, the billionaire participated with seven co-defendants in a bribe payment system, to the tune of more than $250 million (237 million 'approximately euros), to Indian officials for “obtain contracts worth billions of dollars” in the field of solar energy.

According to the prosecutor, Gautam Adani, but also one of his nephews at the head of his group, Sagar Adani, and a third manager would also have hidden “this system of corruption as they sought to raise funds from American and international investors”.

According to the prosecution, the suspects allegedly “widely documented their acts of corruption”notably Sagar Adani with his cell phone. Gautam Adani would have had a direct role. He “met personally with an Indian government official to implement this corruption scheme and the defendants met in person to discuss aspects of its implementation”accuses the prosecution.

Among the eight charged in this sprawling affair are former employees of a Canadian investment fund, including a French-Australian national residing in Singapore, according to the indictment.

Gautam Adani, close to Hindu nationalist Prime Minister Narendra Modi, has not been arrested, the Brooklyn federal prosecutor's office told Agence France-Presse.

Accused of accounting fraud over several decades in 2023

The man who is today one of the richest men in the world is the founder and eponymous boss of the Adani Group conglomerate, which ranges from coal mines to ports and airports, including the media. In 2023, his group was accused of “shameless manipulation” of his own actions as well as “accounting fraud over several decades” by the American investment company Hindenburg Research.

Gautam Adani rejected the accusations, but his group saw its stock value slashed by more than $150 billion following the report, and the businessman saw his personal wealth plummet by around $80 billion. dollars. The tycoon and his company have since made up for much of those losses.

Opposition parties and other critics have long accused him of taking advantage of his relationship with Narendra Modi to unfairly win business and avoiding proper oversight of his company.

A renewable energy park measuring five times the size of Paris

In recent years, he launched a green energy company with ambitious goals, investing in the Indian government's strategic priorities. In the Indian state of Gujarat, the group notably launched the project for the largest renewable energy park in the world, measuring five times the area of ​​Paris.

Born in Ahmedabad, in the western state of Gujarat in India, into a middle-class family, Gautam Adani, now 62, abandoned his studies to work briefly in the diamond industry before launching, in 1988, its export business.

In 1995, the businessman, who was then seeking to diversify his activities, won the contract to build and operate the commercial port of Mundra, which has since become the largest in India. At the same time, he engaged in thermal power generation and coal mining at home and abroad.