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In a big set-back , Gautam Adani has been charged by US prosecutors for allegedly being part of a scheme to pay $265 million (about Rs 2,200 crore/Rs 22 billion) bribes to Indian officials in exchange of favourable terms for solar power contracts.
A Reuters report meanwhile stated that arrest warrants were issued in the United States for Gautam Adani and his nephew Sagar Adani, after a grand jury in New York indicted the business tycoon and seven others on charges of bribery of $265 million (around Rs 2,029 crore) .
Lisa H Miller, Deputy Assistant Attorney General for the Justice Department’s Criminal Division, accused Adani and his associates of bribing Indian government officials and conspiring to obtain lucrative solar energy supply contracts “through corruption and fraud at the expense of US investors”.
As per PTi report, Adani, India’s second-richest man, and seven others including his nephew Sagar have been charged with paying bribes to unidentified officials of state governments in Andhra Pradesh and Odisha to buy expensive solar power, potentially earning more than $2 billion profit over 20 years.
The Adani group had in 2021 won a bid to supply 8,000 megawatt (8 GW) of power generated using locally manufactured solar cell and modular plants but could not meet the price expectations of state governments buying such electricity.
Adani is alleged to have met the then Andhra Pradesh chief minister in 2021, following which the state government agreed to buy 7,000 MW of power.
Andhra Pradesh officials were paid at the rate of Rs 25 lakh (Rs 2.5 million) per MW, totalling Rs 1,750 crore (Rs 17.5 billion/$200 million) for 7,000 MW the state ended up purchasing.
Odisha purchased 500 MW of power through the same route.
‘Andhra Pradesh bribe payment was approximately $200 million,’ the court document showed. Odisha purchased 500 MW of power.
The document also stated that central government entity Solar Energy Corporation of India Limited (SECI), which originally awarded the solar manufacturing linked power tender, entered into the sale agreements with Andhra Pradesh, Odisha, Chhattisgarh and Tamil Nadu between July 2021 and December 2021.
The indictment also names New Delhi-based Azure Power, which had won a similar tender for supply of 4 GW. But when Azure could not cough up its one-third share of the bribe money paid to the states for buying expensive power, Adani made the firm give up part of its contract, which was then taken over by Adani through SECI.
