New Delhi: Bloomberg has reported that US investigators are digging into whether an Adani entity, or people linked to the company including Gautam Adani, were involved in paying officials in India for favourable treatment on an energy project, according to people with direct knowledge of the matter. The probe, which is also looking at Indian renewable energy company Azure Power Global Ltd., is being handled by the US Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of New York and the Justice Department’s fraud unit in Washington.
The Adani Group was contacted by the news agency for a comment.
“We are not aware of any investigation against our chairman,” Adani Group said in an email.
“As a business group that operates with the highest standards of governance, we are subject to and fully compliant with anti-corruption and anti-bribery laws in India and other countries,” it said.
Declines in share values of several of Adani companies have been seen and Bloomberg correlates it with the news “that US prosecutors have widened their probe of the port-to-power conglomerate to focus on whether it may have engaged in bribery.” Most of the group’s shares declined.
Adani has a massive corporate footprint in India, with ports, airports, power lines and highway contracts. The Adani Group attracts capital globally. The Hindenburg report by a short-seller Research body based in the US in January last year raised serious issues about the Adani group. The Adani group rejected all charges. Prime Minister Modi’s perceived proximity to Gautam Adani has become a big issue in the political campaign by both sides, those who oppose India’s rapidly worsening environment for crony capitalisma versus those who see big business like the Adani Group as ‘national champions.’
Also read: Four Issues SEBI Raised (Or It Couldn’t) in the Adani-Hindenburg Matter
The Supreme Court on January 3, this year, held the market regulator SEBI as competent to go into Hindenburg Research’s allegations against the Adani Group. It said that the power of the court to enter the regulatory domain of SEBI is “limited”. A bench headed by the Chief Justice said, “Taking into account the assurance of the Solicitor General, we direct SEBI to complete the investigation in the other two cases preferably within three months.”
Bloomberg in its report emphasised that “the US law allows federal prosecutors to pursue foreign corruption allegations if they involve certain links to American investors or markets.” It adds, “Gautam Adani, his company and Azure haven’t been charged with wrongdoing by the Justice Department, and investigations don’t always lead to prosecutions.”
