U.S. Indictment: Independent review found no irregularities, says Adani Green

Adani Green Energy has said an independent review of its regulatory compliance related to an alleged breach. File
| Photo Credit: Reuters

Adani Green Energy has said an independent review of its regulatory compliances related to an alleged breach that led to the indictment of founder chairman Gautam Adani and two company executives in a U.S. court, did not find irregularities or non-compliances on the issue.

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In November last year, U.S. authorities charged Adani, his nephew and executive director Sagar Adani and managing director Vneet S Jaain for being involved in an alleged scheme to pay bribes to Indian government officials to win solar energy contracts, and concealed the plan as they sought to raise money from US investors.

In its FY25 earning announcement, Adani Green Energy — the firm at the heart of allegation of $265 million bribes allegedly being paid to Indian officials to secure solar power sale contracts that could bring in $2 billion of profits over 20 year period to the firm — said its holding company has not been named as a defendant in the indictment and civil complaint and the matter was pending for further proceedings.

Adani Group had previously denied all allegations as baseless and said it would seek legal recourse to defend itself.

“To uphold the principles of good governance, the Holding Company (of AGEL) appointed independent law firms to perform an independent review to assess and evaluate related non-compliance, if any, in this matter,” the filing said.

“Such independent review also did not identify any non-compliances or irregularities in the matter.”

In November 2024, the United States Department of Justice (US DoJ) filed an indictment against two executive directors and one non-executive director of the holding company and a civil complaint by the Securities and Exchange Commission (US SEC).

“As per the indictment, these directors have been charged on three counts in the criminal indictment, namely alleged securities and fraud conspiracy, alleged wire fraud conspiracy and alleged securities fraud for making false and misleading statements. And as per US SEC civil complaints, directors omitting material factors that rendered certain statements misleading to US investors under Securities Act of 1933 and the Securities Act of 1934,” it said.

AGEL said its holding company has confirmed making “all appropriate disclosures in the past, including in bond offering circulars” that raised money from the U.S. markets.

DoJ has alleged that between 2020 and 2024, senior executives of Adani Green, Azure Power and CDPQ (Caisse de depot et placement du Quebec – a Canadian institutional investor and Azure’s largest shareholder) participated in a scheme to bribe Indian government officials to ensure the execution of lucrative solar energy supply contracts with Indian government entities.

During the same period, senior executives of Adani Green Energy Ltd (AGEL) conspired to misrepresent the company’s anti-bribery practices (to US-based investors and international financial institutions) and concealed from those investors and institutions their bribery of Indian government officials to obtain billions of dollars in financing for green energy projects, including the corrupt solar energy supply contracts.

In addition, senior executives of Azure Power and CDPQ conspired to obstruct the U.S. government’s investigations into the bribery scheme.