Why is Gautam Adani Facing US Bribery Charges?
Who is Gautam Adani?
Gautam Adani, a 62-year-old self-made billionaire, is an Indian tycoon with humble beginnings. A school dropout, Adani moved to Mumbai as a teenager to work in the diamond trade before establishing his own import-export business. His major breakthrough came in 1995 when he acquired a shipping port during India’s economic liberalization.
Today, Adani Group spans various sectors, including power generation, coal mining in Australia, cement, media, food, airport management, and even Israeli ports. The meteoric rise in Adani Enterprises’ stock value—up over 1,000% in five years—has propelled the conglomerate to immense wealth, fueling its rapid expansion.
Ties with the Indian Government
Adani is seen as a close ally of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, a fellow native of Gujarat. His conglomerate provided Modi with a private jet during the 2014 election campaign, which brought Modi’s BJP to power.
Adani’s controversial takeover of NDTV, a prominent news outlet known for critiquing Modi, raised concerns about press freedom. While Adani downplayed these fears, he stated that journalists should also “acknowledge when the government is doing the right thing.”
Critics, including Congress Party leader Rahul Gandhi, have accused Adani of leveraging his relationship with Modi to secure favorable deals and bypass scrutiny. Both Adani and Modi have consistently denied such claims.
The US Bribery Allegations
A New York indictment accuses Adani Group of paying over $250 million in bribes to Indian government officials to secure state contracts worth more than $2 billion. The charges also allege that Adani and other executives misled international investors, including those in the US, to raise funds while concealing the bribery scheme.
US Deputy Assistant Attorney General Lisa Miller said the offenses were committed at the expense of US investors. The indictment specifically accuses Adani of personally meeting with officials to facilitate the scheme and holding discussions with other defendants to plan its execution.
Reaction in India
Adani Group acknowledged the charges by abruptly canceling a US bond sale hours before the indictment’s release but has yet to comment on the allegations. Modi’s government has also remained silent, although BJP spokesperson Amit Malviya claimed the indictment implicated opposition parties rather than the prime minister.
The Congress Party’s Jairam Ramesh called the indictment a vindication of their call for a parliamentary investigation into Adani. He also criticized India’s Securities and Exchange Board (SEBI) for failing to scrutinize the conglomerate effectively.
Past Scrutiny of Adani Group
In 2023, Hindenburg Research, a US-based activist investor, accused Adani Group of stock manipulation and accounting fraud spanning decades. It alleged the use of offshore accounts controlled by Adani’s brother to inflate stock prices artificially.
The Hindenburg report triggered a massive sell-off in Adani Group shares, erasing over $150 billion in market value. Adani’s finance chief dismissed the report as baseless and malicious, claiming it relied on misinformation and outdated allegations previously dismissed by Indian courts.
