US charges raise questions about Indian billionaire's solar energy dealings
US prosecutors brought charges against eight people including Indian business-man Gautam Adani in a solar project case. The case involves alleged bribes worth $265 million to Indian officials
In a high-stakes legal case US prosecutors filed charges against Gautam Adani and seven others for their supposed involvement in a solar-energy related bribe scheme. The case brings up questions about a $265-million payment to Indian officials (which was meant to get contracts for renewable projects)
The main focus is on Gautam Adani – a well-known business-man who started his trading company bout 35 years ago and Sagar Adani his nephew who helps run the green-energy part of their business. The prosecutors say they made a plan to get a solar project and werent honest with investors during a $750-million bond deal
The list of other people who got charged includes:
- Vneet Jaain who runs Adani Green Energy
- Ranjit Gupta who used to be Azure Powers boss
- Cyril Cabanes from investment firm CDPQ
- Saurabh Agarwal and Deepak Malhotra - ex-CDPQ workers
- Rupesh Agarwal whos now at FICCI
The Adani Group says these claims are wrong; theyʼll fight back in court. Azure Power told everyone theyʼre working with US agencies to help with the case. CDPQ mentioned that they fired some workers last year who were part of this situation; theyre also helping authorities
The case shows how US law-people are looking at deals that happened in India – especially ones about green energy projects. The whole thing started when officials noticed something weird about a project that got money from US investors
