Adani Group’s finance chief on Friday rejected U.S. allegations that group executives, including Chairman Gautam Adani, were part of a $265 million bribery scheme, and said the accused would clarify the U.S. allegations in 10 days.
“We reject all of this strongly on behalf of the individuals,” Adani Group CFO Jugeshinder Singh told reporters at an event in Mumbai.
“We believe it is not warranted, we know for sure 100% that nothing of this sort happened. If we were paying that amount of cash to someone I would certainly know, so we know nothing happened,” Singh said.
Bribery Charges
U.S. authorities accused Adani, 62, his nephew and executive director Sagar Adani and managing director of Adani Green, Vneet S. Jaain, of being part of a scheme to pay bribes of $265 million to secure Indian solar power supply contracts, and misleading U.S. investors during fund raises there.
The ports-to-power conglomerate has previously denied the charges as “baseless” and vowed to seek “all possible legal recourse”.
“As a group there will not be any action (on the U.S. indictment) but individuals will be taking steps,” Singh said on Friday.
India’s Response
The U.S. indictment on bribery charges has had major ripple effects: Adani shares have plummeted last week, at least one Indian state is reviewing its power deal with Adani, Indian parliament has been disrupted amid political uproar and TotalEnergieshas decided it will not make any more investments in the group.
India’s foreign ministry said on Friday that bribery allegations against Gautam Adani was a legal issue between private companies and the U.S. Department of Justice. It added that New Delhi has not received any request on this case from Washington. This is India’s first official reaction to Adani’s indictment.
Gautam Adani is one of the richest men in the world. According to Forbes magazine, his net worth is around $69.8 billion. This makes him the world’s 22nd richest person. In India, he is short behind Reliance Industries Chair Mukesh Ambani to be India’s second-richest person.
(with inputs from Reuters)
