Indian billionaire Gautam Adani broke his silence on Saturday after U.S. officials accused him and executives of his Adani Group of running a large-scale bribery scheme, calling the charges “baseless” while vowing to seek “all possible legal recourse.”
The Adani Group founder broke his silence by condemning the charges, saying he would seek “all ... [+]
The Justice Department’s allegations against Adani, 62, and Adani Group executives are “baseless,” Adani said during an awards ceremony in Jaipur, India, adding it was “not the first time we have faced such challenges,” according to a translation by Reuters.
Last week, the DOJ accused Adani and other Adani Group executives of paying Indian government officials more than $250 million to secure energy contracts worth billions of dollars while the Securities and Exchange Commission alleged Adani violated federal securities laws.
Adani’s statement echoed an earlier rebuttal of the allegations by Adani Group, which said the claims were “baseless” and the company had “always upheld” standards of “governance, transparency and regulatory compliance.”
Adani, who suggested “negativity spreads faster than facts,” said he wanted to emphasize his company’s “absolute commitment to world-class regulatory compliance,” though he did not provide additional details.
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“What I can tell you is that every attack makes us stronger and every obstacle becomes a stepping stone for a more resilient Adani Group,” Adani said.
Earlier this month, the Justice Department charged Adani, founder and chairman of Adani Group, and executives of the conglomerate with conspiracy to commit securities and wire fraud and substantive securities fraud. U.S. officials outlined a bribery scheme in which Adani and the executives bribed Indian government officials to purchase energy at above-market rates. Adani raised capital through false and misleading statements by lying to U.S. investors and banks, prosecutors allege. Adani raised more than $750 million in the scheme, including $175 million from U.S. investors, the SEC claimed. Activist investment firm Hindenburg Research accused Adani and his companies of large-scale fraud and stock manipulation last year, resulting in $112 billion being cut from the market value of his conglomerate’s companies. Adani Group decried Hindenburg’s report as “the largest con in corporate history.”
Adani, the world’s 24th-richest person and the second-wealthiest in Asia, has a fortune valued at $66 billion, according to our latest estimates. Adani Group, a conglomerate overseeing energy, infrastructure and transmission firms, was India’s second-largest cement producer in 2022 while generating $38 billion in revenue and employing more than 26,000 people.